Market and product

Shares in the Asia-Pacific region ended mostly higher on Tuesday as Brent crude oil neared $50 a barrel.

Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average closed up 1.1%,, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.7%, and Korea’s Kospi ended little changed.

In China, the Shanghai Composite Index slid 0.3%, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 1.2%.

Energy shares were up across the region after oil prices hit a fresh 2016 peak overnight. Australia’s BHP Billiton Ltd. gained 3.5%, Oil Search Ltd. rose 3.1%, and Rio Tinto Ltd. climbed 1.5%. PetroChina Co. was up 3.2% and Cnooc Ltd. added 3.1%. Oil explorer Inpex Corp. rose 3.2% in Japan.

Higher oil prices helped push Malaysia shares higher on Tuesday. The 30-stock local benchmark index climbed 0.75% to 1,633.38 points in the afternoon, driven mainly by gains for the listed units of national oil company Petroliam Nasional Bhd.

“Definitely, higher oil prices are bringing good sentiment to the stock market” in Singapore and across the region, said Margaret Yang, market strategist with CMC Markets. Singapore’s stock benchmark, the FTSE Strait Times Index , was recently up 0.4%, its second positive day in a row.

In Japan, the yen abruptly weakened after the stock market closed. Some analysts attributed the move to investors who were closing U.S. dollar short positions after the dollar hit 109 per Japanese yen.

Other analysts said the yen could strengthen next week after the G-7 summit in Japan, if officials dash hopes for fresh stimulus.

“There is a deep sense of future uncertainty, intensifying a wait-and-see mood,” said Yuzo Sakai, manager of FX business promotion at Tokyo Forex & Ueda Harlow.

Meanwhile, shares of Sony Financial Holdings Inc. fell 4.9% after the company said its fiscal-year profit fell, dragged by its life insurance and banking businesses.

Elsewhere in the region, Zhang Dejiang, the No. 3 official in the Chinese central government, arrived in Hong Kong ahead of a conference Wednesday about Beijing’s “One Belt One Road” initiative.

Speculation has been growing that Zhang could announce the launch of a long-anticipated stock trading link between Hong Kong and Shenzhen.

In Australia, the local dollar rose as much as 0.8% against the U.S. dollar, after Reserve Bank of Australia policy meeting minutes showed officials had been hesitant about making the most recent interest-rate cut.