Asia Market Wrap 31 August: Oil Jumps Almost 4 Percent as Iran Fires at US Bases in Jordan After Larak Strike, Asian Benchmarks Split Evenly

By The Edge Research Team

Oil prices extended their weekend surge into the Asian session on Monday, with West Texas Intermediate up 3.74 percent, on our calculation, and Brent crude up 3.61 percent, after United States forces destroyed two Iranian rocket launchers on Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday as Iran prepared to fire mine-carrying rockets into the waterway, according to CNBC. It was the first publicly acknowledged American strike on Iran since late July. Iran responded within hours, firing 8 missiles at the King Hussein and Al Azraq air bases in Jordan; Jordanian air defenses intercepted all 8, with no casualties reported. Asian equity benchmarks were far calmer by comparison, splitting evenly at 5 gainers and 5 decliners, with Singapore’s Straits Times Index leading the region at 0.97 percent and Taiwan’s Taiex the session’s biggest decliner at 0.44 percent, a range of 1.41 percentage points, on our calculation.

The session also carried over Friday’s hawkish Jackson Hole remarks from Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh, which had already lifted the market-implied odds of a September rate increase to 57.5 percent from 35.4 percent the day before on the CME FedWatch tool, per our own US Market Wrap of 28 August, a second source of pressure on risk assets heading into the new week.

An Even Split Across a Narrow Range

The 10 benchmarks on this board moved within a comparatively tight band. Singapore’s Straits Times Index led at 0.97 percent, followed by the Shanghai Composite at 0.86 percent, the Kospi at 0.46 percent, the Shenzhen Component at 0.44 percent and the Topix at 0.23 percent. On the other side, the Hang Seng eased 0.07 percent, the Nikkei 225 fell 0.14 percent, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.18 percent, the Nifty 50 fell 0.39 percent and the Taiex fell 0.44 percent, the steepest decline on the board. South Korea’s Kospi reversed an earlier decline to close higher.

The 3 Greater China boards moved within 0.93 percentage points of each other, from the Hang Seng’s 0.07 percent decline to the Shanghai Composite’s 0.86 percent gain, with the Shenzhen Component in between at 0.44 percent, on our calculation. China’s official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index rose to 49.8 in August from 49.2 in July, still below the 50-point line separating expansion from contraction, while the non-manufacturing business activity index held at 49.0, according to China’s National Bureau of Statistics. Korea and Taiwan, 2 economies with similarly large semiconductor export sectors and similarly heavy reliance on imported oil, moved in opposite directions by a combined 0.90 percentage points, on our calculation, the Kospi rising 0.46 percent while the Taiex fell 0.44 percent.

Oil’s Weekend Surge Extends Into Monday

West Texas Intermediate traded at 86.53 dollars a barrel, up 3.74 percent from the 83.41 dollar level quoted in Friday’s Commodities Wrap, on our calculation, while Brent crude traded at 91.28 dollars a barrel, up 3.61 percent from its own previous close, as reported. Brent’s most active contract rolled to November since Friday’s session, so its change is measured against November’s own previous close rather than against Friday’s October price.

The move followed Sunday’s strike on Larak Island and Iran’s missile attack on the Jordan air bases hours later, extending a rally that had already lifted Brent back above 90 dollars a barrel in the immediate aftermath.

Silver traded at 66.935 dollars an ounce, up 0.74 percent from the 66.44 dollar level quoted in Friday’s Commodities Wrap, on our calculation, while gold eased to 4,500.90 dollars an ounce, down 0.20 percent from the 4,510 dollar level quoted in that same wrap, on our calculation. Silver therefore moved in the opposite direction from gold for a second consecutive session.

Closing index levels for the 31 August 2026 session, captured at 10:15 GMT after every Asian market had closed. Ranked by change. The Taiex close is the Taiwan Stock Exchange’s own published figure, the Nikkei 225 is from Nikkei Inc, the Topix is from the Japan Exchange Group, the Hang Seng is from Hang Seng Indexes Company, the Shanghai Composite is from the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the Shenzhen Component is from the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and the Kospi is from the Korea Exchange; the remaining levels are from CNBC.

Most active contract quotes captured at 10:15 GMT, taken before the day’s settlement windows. These are intraday levels, not exchange settlements. The WTI, silver and gold changes are on our calculation against the quoted levels in Friday’s 28 August edition of The Edge’s Commodities Wrap ($83.41, $66.44 and $4,510.00 respectively), which were themselves post-settlement-window quotes rather than exchange settlement prints. The Brent change is its own reported change against its new front-month contract’s previous close, since the contract rolled to November since Friday.

Intraday quotes from the same 10:15 GMT capture on 31 August 2026, measured against each instrument’s previous close.

Elsewhere, Most Recent Completed Sessions

Gulf and Egyptian markets trade Sunday to Thursday. At this capture, Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul and Nomu and Egypt’s EGX were still in their Monday sessions, Bahrain’s session had already closed, and Kuwait and Qatar were at or near their scheduled end of session. The table below carries our Middle East Market Wrap’s most recently published session, Sunday 30 August, consistent with how this reference table is always sourced. Continental European exchanges, including Frankfurt, Paris and London, had likewise been trading for several hours by this capture but had not completed Monday’s session, and United States markets had not yet opened; both tables below therefore carry Friday’s close, the most recently completed session in each region.

Middle East, 30 August close, for reference

Carried verbatim from our Middle East Market Wrap of 30 August 2026.

Europe, 28 August close, for reference

Carried verbatim from our Europe Market Wrap of 28 August 2026.

United States, 28 August close, for reference

Carried verbatim from our US Market Wrap of 28 August 2026.

Why It Matters

Sunday’s exchange, an American strike answered within hours by an Iranian missile attack on US bases in Jordan, was a two-sided military escalation, not a one-off strike, yet Asian equities absorbed it without a broad selloff. A shock of this size would typically register more forcefully in the import-dependent economies on this board, but Korea and Japan, both heavy oil importers, closed on opposite sides of flat, and Taiwan’s 0.44 percent decline was the day’s largest. That gap between an active military exchange and a near-flat equity close is worth watching into Tuesday, rather than read as a market verdict that the escalation is resolved.

Outlook

Oil’s reaction over the coming sessions will show whether Monday’s jump holds or extends, depending on any further exchange between the United States and Iran and the pace of tanker traffic through the strait. In equities, the question is whether Monday’s even split holds once Europe and the United States complete their own sessions and the region has a full day’s developments to react to.

Sources: CNBC, closes and intraday quotes captured at 10:15 GMT on 31 August 2026, and reporting on the Larak Island strike and the missile attack on US bases in Jordan; National Bureau of Statistics of China, August manufacturing and non-manufacturing purchasing managers’ indexes; Taiwan Stock Exchange; Nikkei Inc; Japan Exchange Group; Hang Seng Indexes Company; Shanghai Stock Exchange; Shenzhen Stock Exchange; Korea Exchange; The Edge, Middle East, Europe and US Market Wraps and Commodities Wrap.

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