Asian stocks rallied on Thursday, fuelled by growing optimism the Iran war is close to ending and the revival of demand for all things AI.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index closed 412 points or 1.57 percent higher at 26,626.

Mainland stocks also posted gains, with the Shanghai Composite Index up 0.48 percent to 4,180 and the Shenzhen Component Index 1.18 percent higher at 15,641.

Tokyo's Nikkei soared more than 5 percent as investors there returned from a long holiday, with tech investment titan SoftBank rocketing more than 18 percent while chip-linked firms Tokyo Electron and Advantest also ratcheted up big gains.

Seoul extended Wednesday's surge that took it past 7,000 points for the first time, with Samsung also up following its meteoric rise to pass the US$1 trillion market capitalisation mark. (AFP/Xinhua)



Edited by Edmond Fong