Asian shares climb amid Russia-Ukraine talks and oil worries

Asian shares climb amid Russia-Ukraine talks and oil worries

Ordinary Russians facing likely higher prices and crimped foreign travel due to Western sanctions.

By AP Published: Tue 1 Mar 2022, 10:03 AM

Asian shares mostly rose Tuesday as global investors eyed talks aimed at ending the Russian military assault on Ukraine, which so far have yielded just an agreement to keep talking.

Benchmarks were higher in early trading in Tokyo, Sydney and Shanghai. Hong Kong declined and markets were closed in South Korea for a holiday. US futures edged lower and oil prices rose.

Surging oil prices and increasing financial pressure from the US and allies on Russia, one of the world's largest energy exporters, for its attack on Ukraine are adding to uncertainty about the global economic outlook.

Russian forces shelled Ukraine’s second-largest city on Monday, rocking a residential neighborhood, and closed in on the capital, Kyiv, in a 40-mile convoy of hundreds of tanks and other vehicles.

“The end game continues to elude. While the ceasefire talks at the Belarus-Ukraine border ended, the military fires certainly have not ended by any means alongside sanctions being raised further,” Tan Boon Heng at Mizuho Bank in Singapore said in a commentary.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 gained 1.4 per cent in afternoon trading to 26,893.98. Australia's S&P/ASX