MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 0.3 per cent

Asian share markets dropped on ​Thursday as cracks quickly began to appear in the fragile Gulf ceasefire, nudging oil prices back up and reminding ‌investors the inflationary fallout will last for a long time yet.

There was scant sign that the Strait of Hormuz was open in any meaningful way, with Iran flexing its control over the vital oil seaway and demanding tolls for safe passage.

You have a fifth of the world’s oil supply moving through a ​corridor that is still effectively under the influence of one of the parties to the conflict, said Nigel Green, ​CEO at deVere Group. That’s not stability.

You don’t need a full blockade to move oil markets sharply ⁠higher again, he added. Missiles are still being launched in the Gulf, Israel is still engaged on another front, and yet markets ​are behaving as though the region has normalised.

As a result ​while Brent gained 2.1 per cent to $96.74.

Japan’s Nikkei dithered either side of flat, after climbing 5.4 per cent the previous session. South Korea slipped 0.4 per cent, following a jump of 6.8 per cent. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 0.3 per cent.

With oil prices still near 40 per cent higher than pre-war, an inflationary spike is about to show up in the hard data across the globe.

Elsewhere, on the U.S. stock market, S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures were both down 0.2 per cent as ​Wednesday’s surge faded.

For a mixed Europe, EUROSTOXX 50 futures inched up 0.1 per cent, DAX futures dropped 0.3 per cent and FTSE futures added ​0.5 per cent.