A screen displays share prices inside the Kabuto One building in Tokyo, Japan, on Monday, April 13, 2026. Oil surged and stocks fell after President\u00a0Donald Trump\u00a0ordered a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, escalating tensions with Iran following the collapse of weekend peace talks. Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota\/Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images<\/p>\n
Asia-Pacific markets rose on Friday, with South Korea’s Kospi hitting a fresh intraday record and Japan’s Topix reaching a new all-time high, as investors looked past renewed military activity involving Iran and focused on gains in technology shares and record closes on Wall Street.<\/p>\n
South Korea’s Kospi jumped more than 3%, hitting a new intra-day high before paring gains slightly. The small-cap Kosdaq was down 3.17%.<\/p>\n
Japan’s\u00a0Nikkei 225<\/a> was up 2.49%, while the Topix rose 1.86% a new record high.<\/p>\n Shares of\u00a0Samsung Electronics surged as much as 6.51%<\/a> after the company said it had begun shipping samples of its latest high-bandwidth memory chip to its customers globally. <\/p>\n India’s Nifty 50 traded near the flatline. In Australia, the S&P\/ASX 200<\/a> rose 0.72%.<\/p>\n Hong Kong’s\u00a0Hang Seng index<\/a> added 1.1%, while the CSI 300 was unchanged.<\/p>\n Iran’s armed forces reportedly fired missiles<\/a> at unspecified targets late Thursday, according to state media outlet Fars.<\/p>\n The latest military activity in southern Iran came just hours after the Pentagon said Tehran had fired a ballistic missile toward Kuwait and deployed attack drones in and around the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n Earlier on Thursday, a White House official confirmed an Axios<\/a> report saying the U.S. and Iran had “mostly agreed” on the terms of a deal aimed at temporarily halting the three-month conflict.<\/p>\n