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 Donald Trump ordered 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
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Asia-Pacific markets traded higher on Friday as investors weighed fresh military activity involving Iran against signs that Washington and Tehran were moving closer to a temporary agreement to halt their three-month conflict.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.88%, while the Topix added 0.53%. South Korea’s Kospi jumped 2.68%, while the small-cap Kosdaq was up 0.25%. Shares of Samsung Electronics surged as much as 6.51% after the company said it had begun shipping samples of its latest high-bandwidth memory chip to its customers globally.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.72%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index added 0.68%, while the CSI 300 rose 0.38%.
Iran’s armed forces reportedly fired missiles at unspecified targets late Thursday, according to state media outlet Fars.
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.
Earlier on Thursday, a White House official confirmed an Axios report saying the U.S. and Iran had “mostly agreed” on the terms of a deal aimed at temporarily halting the three-month conflict.
