Oljeaksjer trekker Oslo Børs opp

Oslo Børs opened on Wednesday with the main index up 0.49 percent. Oil and gas prices have surged sharply over recent days, following attacks and rising unrest in the Middle East. Yara rose 1.2 percent, while Norsk Hydro fell 0.7 percent. Market interest rates and oil price volatility contributed to a decline on Wall Street in the previous evening.

Asian stock markets also fell early on Thursday. Brent crude oil price is at $95.4 per barrel right at market opening, up from around $92 when the exchange closed yesterday. The current price near $97 is the highest since July 24. European gas price is also up at 73.9 euro per megawatt-hour, the highest in over half a year with war in Iran.

Attacks from both the US and Iran have resumed recently, continuing yesterday. President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social on Tuesday night that the US had carried out attacks on Iranian targets near the Strait of Hormuz, in retaliation for Iran attempting to place sea mines in the strait and shoot missiles at US military base in Jordan.

The attacks were claimed to have targeted Iranian air defense, radars, mines, and communications, according to US Central Command. Iran reportedly retaliated with missile attacks on US military bases in Jordan and Bahrain, according to the semistate Iranian news agency Tasnim, as reported by Bloomberg. Trump stated the same evening that he was not trying to push Iran to the negotiating table and that he was "not willing to care less" whether the country signed a deal, according to a Truth Social post.

The outcome is somewhat reflected on Oslo Børs, with some news from companies listed on the exchange since yesterday's trading session. Gas distributor BW LPG received $300 million through bonds that can be converted to shares, according to a company announcement. The bonds have an interest rate of 2.25 percent annually until 2031, with a conversion price initially set at $30.487 per share, giving a premium of over 40 percent from the reference price of the share.

The money will be used partly to finance the construction of eight Panamax VLGC ships, and for general company purposes. BW LPG shares fell 5.4 percent to a price of 217.2 kroner per share.