The price of North Sea crude, Brent, rose 3.0 percent to $76.39 per barrel in overnight trading. In addition to the renewed fighting around the Persian Gulf, the market is reacting to the US reimposing sanctions against oil purchases from Iran.
In Asia, trading was mixed, with continued sharp price declines for technology stocks on the Seoul Stock Exchange. In Hong Kong, however, the trend was the opposite, with broad gains, particularly for technology stocks, and a surge of more than 10 percent for Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.
The Stockholm Stock Exchange's broad OMXS index fell 0.8 percent on Tuesday, reducing its rise since the turn of the year to 6.0 percent.
