Kospi declines, oil prices rise on West Asia tensions

Asian shares declined, while oil prices rose to their highest level in over a month after the US-Iran attacks escalated over the weekend.

South Korea's Kospi index fell over 1%, while Nasdaq 100 futures were up 0.6% post Friday's rout. Trading in the cash market was shut during Asian hours due to a holiday in Japan.

Brent was up 3.8% at more than $91 a barrel.

The West Asia war escalation is unnerving already jittery markets as a sell-off in tech stocks had gathered pace on worries that AI spending spree was becoming harder to justify.

Even as AI demand and corporate results remain robust, the rising questions over the durability of the same has pushed a gauge of chip stocks into a bear market.

Gold extended last week's drop, declining 0.5% to under $4,000 an ounce. Silver and platinum rates also declined as rising oil prices reinforced the expectations that interests would remain higher for longer.

With inputs from Bloomberg