Oil stayed at $100 a barrel on Tuesday on lingering concerns over political unrest in Egypt while Asian stock markets rebounded from the previous day's losses, helped by a rally on Wall Street.
Tokyo's Nikkei ended the session up 0.36 percent, or 36.58 points, at 10,274.50 points and Seoul rose 0.11 percent, or 2.30 points, to 2,072.03.
Hong Kong rose 0.15 percent, or 35.61 points, to 23,482.95 and Shanghai ended up 0.30 percent, or 8.27 points, at 2,798.96, with higher commodity prices supporting resource stocks in both markets.
Sydney finished down 1.80 points at4,752.10.
The price of Brent North Sea crude broke the $100 mark in New York on Monday to hit its highest level in more than two years.
Traders pushed crude prices higher on supply fears because while Egypt is not a major producer, it is home to the Suez Canal, which carries around 2.4 million barrels of oil a day — about the same daily output of Iraq or Brazil.
Brent crude for delivery in March dipped 50 cents but was still high at $100.51 in afternoon trade, after hitting $101.73 late Monday, the highest level since October 2008 at the start of the global downturn.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for March, was down 20 cents at $91.99 per barrel.
On stock markets traders looked to the United States, where the Dow ended 0.58 percent higher on Monday on the back of strong earnings results from energy giant
ExxonMobil.
The euro rose against the dollar amid speculation about potential European interest rate hikes. The euro bought $1.3720 dollars in Tokyo afternoon trade, up from $1.3686inNewYorklate Monday.
The dollar traded at 81.84 yen after briefly falling to 81.75 yen, the lowest level since early January, due to speculation that rising prices of commodities such as crude oil may hamper US economic growth.
The greenback was at 82.04 yen in NewYork late Monday.
Gold closed at $1,338.50-$1,339.50 an ounce in Hong Kong, up from its close of $1,333.30-$1,334.30 on Monday.
In other markets:
Delhi fell 1.67 percent, or 305.54 points, to 18,022.22, a near fivemonth low and the market’s fifth straight day of losses even as most Asian markets rebounded.
India’s leading vehicle maker Tata Motors fell 6.92 percent, or 79.45 rupees, to 1,068.8, while the largest private bank ICICI Bank fell 2.61 percent, or 26.6 rupees, to 993.4.
State-run Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) fell 6.28 percent, or 38.7 rupees, to 577.1, while rival Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL) closed down 4.12 percent, or 14.8 rupees, at359.5.
Singapore rose 0.16 points, or 5.02 points, to 3,184.74. Singapore Airlines dropped 0.41 percent to Sg$ 14.70.
Seoul rose 0.11 percent, or 2.30 points, to 2,072.03 on buying by individual and institutional investors. Bangkok fell 0.46 percent, or 4.41 points, to 959.69.