The rally carried South Korea's benchmark KOSPI to its first close above 7,000 since July 23.
The KOSPI rose 97.12 points to 7,051.64, a gain of 1.4 percent.
The KOSDAQ, South Korea's secondary board for smaller and technology-focused companies, climbed 18.49 points to 830.37, up 2.3 percent.
Retail investors sold the whole way up. Individuals unloaded a net 2.2875 trillion won ($1.71 billion) on the main board. Foreign investors turned seller for the first time in five sessions, shedding 435.0 billion won ($325.5 million) to snap a four-session buying run that had underpinned September's recovery.
Institutions bought a net 941.7 billion won ($704.7 million).
The trigger came from outside all three markets. U.S. glassmaker Corning said it had signed a long-term optical fiber supply agreement with Verizon, according to Japanese market wire Fisco. The deal covers more than 80 million miles of high-density fiber from 2027 through 2032, a multi-year order worth billions of dollars. Corning shares rose 7.5 percent in New York.
Tokyo moved first. Furukawa Electric, Japan's second-largest wire and cable maker and a supplier of data-center fiber, jumped 12.6 percent to 4,129 yen.
Gaon Cable rose 16.7 percent to 265,000 won ($198.3), on expectations for bus duct and power distribution cable used inside artificial intelligence data centers. Electrical products led KOSPI sectors, up 7.2 percent.
The same trade ran through Shanghai in its rawest form. The Shanghai Composite added 17.43 points to 3,957.98, up 0.4 percent, with copper producers leading. Jiangxi Copper gained 2.0 percent to 49.49 yuan and Zijin Mining 1.7 percent to 34.42 yuan.
Copper settled at $14,737.00 a metric ton on Sept. 8, up $197.00.
Underneath the cable bid, South Korea's memory chips did the heavy index lifting, and they did it unevenly.
SK hynix rose 3.5 percent to 1,856,000 won ($1,388.8). It touched 1,883,000 won intraday.
Samsung Electronics did not move at all, closing unchanged at 269,500 won ($201.7).
That gap is the session's quiet signal. Traders read the day's chip bid as high-bandwidth memory demand rather than a broad memory upcycle, and SK hynix is the direct expression of it.
Batteries provided the other leg. SK innovation surged 11.2 percent to 153,500 won ($114.9), its fourth double-digit move in seven sessions, with the secondary battery production theme up 8.7 percent.
Tokyo did not hold its gains. The Nikkei 225 was up 0.4 percent at the morning close before fading to end down 126.55 points at 65,142.78, a loss of 0.2 percent. Rising oil and caution ahead of U.S. inflation data offset the cable rally. SoftBank Group rose 3.9 percent to 6,810 yen and trading house Mitsubishi Corp. 2.3 percent to 5,038 yen.
The won firmed against the dollar, quoted at 1,336.40 by Hana Bank at 3:37 p.m., 5.10 won stronger than the previous session.
AJP Takeaways:
- KOSPI closes above 7,000 for first time since July 23, rising 1.4 percent as cable, AI infrastructure, memory chip and battery shares rally.
- Corning’s long-term fiber deal with Verizon sparks a Northeast Asia cable trade, lifting Furukawa Electric in Tokyo and Gaon Cable in Seoul on AI data-center demand hopes.
- SK hynix leads the chip move while foreign investors sell, signaling selective HBM demand and leaving the durability of the rally tied to domestic buying, U.S. inflation data and oil prices.
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