Sawt Falasteen - Stocks rebound after tech rout, oil prices drop

Oil prices fell further as shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz picked up, hitting its highest level on Monday since the Middle East war began, according to two maritime tracking platforms.

European stock markets mostly rose, with London and Paris both edging higher nearing the half-way stage.

Frankfurt was weighed by an almost 17-percent fall in German defence giant Rheinmetall after reports -- subsequently confirmed -- that Berlin had scrapped a multi-billion-euro plan to build six new frigates for its navy.

French-German tank maker KNDS, meanwhile, said it would launch a stock market flotation in Paris and Frankfurt within weeks, firing the starting gun on Europe's biggest defence sector IPO in years.

In Asia, Seoul closed up more than three percent after a 10-percent collapse Tuesday led by losses for chip giants SK hynix and Samsung.

There were gains in Hong Kong and Shanghai Wednesday, though Tokyo once more ended lower.

"The global tech sell-off appears to have started to stabilise, but investors remain super-cautious, nervous that high valuations could be chipped away at again," said Susannah Streeter, chief investment strategist at Wealth Club.

While no specific catalyst was blamed for the selling, analysts cited questions over when firms will see a return on the trillions that have been invested in all things AI, and the prospect of a US interest-rate hike that is boosting the dollar.

Eyes turn later in the day to the release of earnings from US chipmaker Micron Technology, which will provide a fresh idea about the state of demand in the sector and whether the AI rally still has legs.

"The next-stage debate on AI investing is not whether the theme is real, but whether the scale of investment will ultimately generate the returns that investors expect," said Christoffer Enemaerke at RBC BlueBay Asset Management.

After more selling of tech stocks on Wall Street -- where the Nasdaq lost two percent Tuesday -- Samsung shares gained almost 10 percent Wednesday, though SK hynix added just one percent.

SK hynix announced that it plans to raise 45.45 trillion won ($29 billion) through a listing on Wall Street's tech-heavy Nasdaq index.

Seoul, Tokyo and Taipei -- where many of the world's hardware makers are listed -- have been at the forefront of the tech rally this year.

- Key figures around 1045 GMT -

London - FTSE 100: UP 0.1 percent at 10,439.62 points

Paris - CAC 40: UP 0.2 percent at 8,360.70

Frankfurt - DAX: DOWN 1.0 percent at 24,655.36

Seoul - Kospi: UP 3.3 percent at 8,471.02 (close)

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.9 percent at 69,174.97 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: UP 0.3 percent at 23,412.18 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.1 percent at 4,110.81 (close)

New York - Dow: DOWN 0.1 percent at 51,666.84 (close)

Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 1.7 percent at $75.76 a barrel

West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 1.7 percent at $71.98 a barrel

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1343 from $1.1383 on Tuesday

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3162 from $1.3196

Dollar/yen: UP at 161.68 yen from 161.52 yen

Euro/pound: DOWN at 86.17 pence from 86.23 pence

O.Salim--SF-PST