𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Oil prices have risen and stock markets are under pressure as hostilities resumed between Israel and Iran after a fresh round of airstrikes.

Investors reacting to the conflict was helping fuel a downturn in the world’s financial markets.

The price of Brent crude oil shot up by around 5% on Monday morning to more than 97 US dollars a barrel.

Nevertheless, prices remain below the 100 dollars a barrel mark and short of the 120 dollar peak reached in April.

Oil prices have eased slightly over recent weeks amid hopes of peace talks developing following a ceasefire agreement in the US-Israeli war with Iran in April.

But hopes were dashed that the conflict could be resolved after Iran launched missiles at Israel in the first strike since the fragile ceasefire, with Israel retaliating with airstrikes against Iran early on Monday.

Steep losses in Asian stock markets overnight saw Japan’s Nikkei 225 index fall by 3.8% and South Korea’s Kospi index tumbling by more than 8% after a sharp sell-off affecting technology stocks.

This came after a bruising session on Wall Street on Friday, where the S&P 500 index fell by 2.6% amid renewed concerns about inflation.

European stock markets opened in the red on Monday, although losses were more modest compared with international peers.

The UK’s FTSE 100 was down about 0.3%, to 10,336, in early trading, while Germany’s Dax was falling about 0.8%, and France’s Cac 40 was down 0.6%.

Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor, said: “An ugly collision of the forces which have propelled markets so far this year – technology, economics and geopolitics – sent investors on a selling spree which resulted in a sharp sell-off across global markets.

“The inevitable pressure on Asian markets, which saw circuit breakers being triggered in South Korea as the index fell by more than 8% at the open, was exacerbated by news that Israel had launched airstrikes on Iran, despite earlier calls for restraint from the US president.

“Oil prices rose by more than 4% as a result, further underlying the inflationary pressures which much of the world will be facing in the coming months.”