08/05/2026

BIZ & FINANCE FRIDAY | MAY 8, 2026

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HONG KONG: Tokyo’s Nikkei index soared yesterday to lead another strong rally across Asia stocks, fuelled by growing optimism the Iran war is close to ending and the revival of demand for all things AI. Oil prices also extended the week’s steep losses due to hopes Washington and Tehran will conclude the conflict and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which has been effectively closed since the start of March, choking off a fifth of the world’s crude. Risk sentiment got a huge boost on Wednesday when US President Donald Trump said an agreement was near, a day after he paused efforts to help stranded ships through Hormuz, which drew Iranian attacks and threatened their fragile ceasefire. If “Iran agrees to give what has been agreed to” the war would be over, Trump said. But if not, the bombing would resume “at a much higher level and intensity”. He later told reporters: “We’ve had very good talks over the last 24 hours, and it’s very possible that we’ll make a deal.” US news outlet Axios cited two US officials as saying both sides were close to agreement on a one-page memorandum of understanding to end the war, open the strait and set a framework for more detailed nuclear talks. Iran has yet to respond to the American offer, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei telling local media it was “still under review”. Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who has taken the lead in negotiations, warned Washington was trying to “force us to surrender”. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, a key figure in initial talks in Islamabad last month, said he was “very hopeful”. Oil prices edged down yesterday, having fallen around 10% over the previous two days. Investors, who have largely remained optimistic that a deal can be reached, tracked another record day on Wall Street and pushed Asian markets higher. The gains have also been helped by a fresh wave of cash back into the tech sector as traders snap up all things AI, helped by standout earnings from US giants including Microsoft, Apple and Alphabet. Tokyo’s Nikkei soared more than

Pedestrians walk past a stock quotation board showing the Nikkei share average outside a brokerage in Tokyo yesterday. – REUTERSPIC

Tokyo leads Asia stock surge on growing peace hopes

o Oil prices collapse, bonds rally, greenback sinks while gold explodes higher

out plans for a gas export tax in next week’s federal budget over fears it could jeopardise relationships with Asian trading partners that send fuels such as gasoline and diesel to Australia. The policy could also increase perceptions of regulatory risk for investors and make future LNG projects less attractive, analysts said. “This could reduce incremental Australian LNG supply growth at a time when the market is already facing uncertainty surrounding Middle Eastern LNG supply,“ said Rystad Energy analyst Masanori Odaka. Manufacturing Australia CEO Ben Eade backed the policy, saying it will “help underpin manufacturing investment, energy transition and energy security for future generations.” – Reuters beleaguered currency. The unit, which has been hit by surging oil prices and a rush to the safe-haven dollar, hit a 10-month high against the greenback on Wednesday, in the latest of a series of spikes in recent days that have fuelled rumours that officials have provided support. The government spent US$32 US$38 billion buying yen in the market last Thursday, local media reported, quoting Bank of Japan data. Atsushi Mimura, Japan’s top currency official, declined yesterday to comment, local media reported. – AFP

Stephen Innes at SPI Asset Management said “traders aggressively embraced the idea that the Iran war may finally be shifting from missile trajectories to negotiation tables, while the AI frenzy simultaneously poured jet fuel onto the risk rally”. “The result was one of those rare sessions where nearly every macro domino fell in perfect sequence. “Oil collapsed, bonds rallied, the dollar sank, gold exploded higher”, and stocks surged, he said. Investors in Tokyo were also closely watching the yen after speculation of intervention by the Japanese government to prop up the

Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, Singapore, Taipei, Mumbai, Bangkok, Wellington, Manila and Jakarta were all up. Paris and Frankfurt opened higher, though London dipped after rallying more than 2% on Wednesday. The prospect of cheaper oil prices tempered worries about inflation, which also helped gold rally more than 3% on Wednesday.

5% as investors there returned from a long holiday, with tech investment titan SoftBank rocketing more than 18% while chip-linked firms Tokyo Electron and Advantest also ratcheted up big gains. Seoul extended Wednesday’s surge that took it past 7,000 points for the first time, with Samsung also up following its meteoric rise to pass the US$1 trillion market capitalisation mark.

Australia to force gas giants to reserve fuel for domestic use SYDNEY: The Australian government said yesterday energy exporters must reserve 20% of their natural gas for the domestic market on the country’s east coast to avert supply shortfalls and help lower energy bills. often good policy doesn’t – but it’s good policy.” Bowen said the policy would only apply to prospective contracts and the spot market. scheme that requires offshore export projects to divert 15% of their gas to its local market. Origin Energy, which leads rival export consortium Australia Pacific LNG, was down 1.2%. The declines came as energy stocks weakened broadly due to lower oil prices.

Resources Minister Madeleine King added the policy was part of broader gas market reforms that involve scrapping the Australian Domestic Gas Security Mechanism, a policy that allows the government to restrict exports from the three east coast LNG plants. The government will also remove an agreement under which the three exporters committed to offer any uncontracted gas volumes to the domestic market on internationally competitive terms. “Today is a very important and historic structural shift in Australia’s domestic gas market policy settings,“ King said. Shares in Santos, which operates the Gladstone LNG project in Queensland, fell 3% in afternoon trading.

It is intended to create a “modest oversupply” of gas in the domestic market to force down energy prices, he said. “It’s going to put downward pressure on prices. And what it will also do is to a certain degree, disconnect Australian gas from spikes in international prices,“ Bowen said. Australia is one of the world’s largest LNG exporters and ships more gas overseas than it consumes domestically. But most of the country’s large gas reserves are located in the northwest, far from the more populous southeast where demand is concentrated. The state of Western Australia already has its own reservation

Analysts said the impact of the policy was hard to determine, other than as legacy contracts expire, more volumes will be exposed to the scheme. “A meaningful volume” of Australian LNG contracts are due to expire between 2027 and 2029, said Kpler analyst Go Katayama. The plan had only been expected later this year following discussions with the industry. “This is a surprise political announcement to distract from the parliamentary gas tax debate and little more,“ said MST Marquee analyst Saul Kavonic. The government recently ruled

The scheme will apply from July next year and not affect existing contracts, the government said. Three liquefied natural gas export projects on the east coast operated by Origin Energy, Shell and Santos, respectively, will be affected by the reservation scheme. In December, the government proposed a plan to reserve between 15% to 25% of gas. “This is a carefully calibrated model which ensures that Australia’s national best interests are put first,“ Energy Minister Chris Bowen told reporters. “This is a policy which will obviously not please everyone –