Name: Oil prices rise and stocks sink as US-Israel war with Iran widens | BBC News
Uploaded: 2026-03-31T13:07:58.000Z
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The impact of this war continues to ripple across the world.

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Global oil prices jumped and stocks fell sharply on Monday in Asia.

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The price of Brent crude, the global benchmark, was trading at nearly $116 a barrel a little earlier.

And for comparison, the price of Brent was around $72 a barrel the day before the US and Israel struck Iran.

And it puts Brent on track for its biggest monthly gain on record.

That jump is in part due to Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen joining the conflict by striking Israel over the weekend.

And it's really important to take a look at why that was so significant, because the focus so far has been solving Iran's effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

But Saudi Arabia is currently delivering four million barrels a day through a pipeline to Yanbu on the Red Sea coast.

And that means it can maintain the flow of oil to the Asian market by safely sailing past Yemen.

But that route, too, could now be under threat.

From 2023, almost two years of Houthi attacks has seen almost 30 ships damaged.

Any repeat as threatened could see the narrow Bab al-Mandab Strait become another flashpoint, effectively routing for Saudi oil.

Our Asia business correspondent, Nick Marsh, is in Singapore.

He has the latest for us on the price of oil following weeks of volatility.

Markets out here in Asia have pretty much closed their trading for the day.

They all closed the day sharply down based on this jump in the price of oil.

I think now traders are just making a very simple calculation.

They're asking a very simple question: Is this war any closer to being over?

If it's not, then the price of oil is going to stay high.

And I think people looked at what happened over the weekend, the entry of the Houthis in Yemen.

You know, there's that Iran-backed group looking at the talk of a ground invasion, perhaps.

And they're thinking, "Well, this is certainly not de-escalating.

This might escalate." And if things escalate, that means that the Strait of Hormuz is going to remain blocked because Iran controls it.

Anything that goes through there is basically allowed to go through there because Iran says it's okay.

And if oil and gas can't get through, if the fertilizer can't get through, if cargo can't get through, then that's going to have ramifications for the world economy.

So you're seeing that market reaction based on that simple calculation of this war being no closer to being over.

So that's what it looks like in Asia at the moment.

With me is Esla Khar, our business reporter.

Well, following President Trump's comments, there's clearly been a lot of uncertainty for investors around how the conflict is going to develop.

And that's left European markets opening fairly flat today.

But the bigger picture over the last month is really one of losses to global stocks and clearly a lot of volatility.

Now, as we heard from Nick there, the oil price has been trading at around $115 a barrel.

And that means that the price of Brent crude has gone up by over 50 percent since this conflict began.

And tankers that set off before the conflict have been arriving at refineries.

But we're now entering a period where those supplies will start to dry up.

And that means that governments all around the world are looking quite seriously at what they're going to do to mitigate some of this impact.

Tell us about the plans that some governments have talked about or are even putting in place now.

Well, clearly, the biggest issue at the moment is the one of fuel.

We've seen prices of both petrol and diesel go up around the world.

Now, in some countries, in Sri Lanka, Thailand, the Philippines, Asian countries that are particularly reliant on oil from the Gulf, we've seen them bring in measures already, everything from cutting the use of air conditioning to rationing fuel.

In Australia, they've announced a three-month halving of the fuel tax.

And in some Australian states, they're offering free public transport to try and cut down on people driving and to conserve fuel that way.

But, of course, this isn't just about fuel.

As the conflict continues, there's also concern about a crunch on all kinds of supply chains, from aluminium to helium and, of course, fertilizer, which is so crucial in food production and farming.

So today, G7 finance ministers are meeting with central bank governors to discuss ways to try and mitigate some of the impact, the economic impact of this conflict, because while there's lots of uncertainty about how it will develop, the repercussions for the economy are already with us.

It's the truth of the matter, though, that they can discuss.

But there's actually very little they can do until the Strait of Hormuz is reopened again.

I mean, they are all talking about their hypothetical plans, what they can do.

But as we've seen in some countries, measures are already being put in place.

So we'll be watching to see what else develops.

Esla, thank you very much for joining us.