Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Telecoms, Technology and Basic Materials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.84%, while the S&P 500 index climbed 0.88%, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 1.37%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT), which rose 10.26% or 9.22 points to trade at 99.05 at the close. Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) added 5.85% or 2.00 points to end at 36.10 and DowDuPont Inc (NYSE:DWDP) was up 2.25% or 1.55 points to 70.53 in late trade.
Biggest losers included The Travelers Companies Inc (NYSE:TRV), which lost 1.62% or 2.16 points to trade at 131.55 in late trade. Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) declined 0.70% or 0.56 points to end at 80.64 and Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) shed 0.51% or 0.59 points to 114.78.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were NetApp Inc (NASDAQ:NTAP) which rose 15.50% to 52.92, Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT) which was up 10.26% to settle at 99.05 and JM Smucker Company (NYSE:SJM) which gained 9.76% to close at 116.90.
The worst performers were Best Buy Co Inc (NYSE:BBY) which was down 3.84% to 55.10 in late trade, Viacom B Inc (NASDAQ:VIAB) which lost 3.78% to settle at 23.68 and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd (NASDAQ:NCLH) which was down 1.72% to 54.125 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were China Advanced Construction Materials (NASDAQ:CADC) which rose 195.45% to 6.500, OptimumBank Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:OPHC) which was up 153.24% to settle at 6.432 and Carver Bancorp Inc (NASDAQ:CARV) which gained 126.83% to close at 4.650.
The worst performers were Intec Pharma Ltd (NASDAQ:NTEC) which was down 23.83% to 5.675 in late trade, CHF Solutions Inc (NASDAQ:CHFS) which lost 22.00% to settle at 12.870 and Rand Logistics Inc (NASDAQ:RLOG) which was down 20.67% to 0.5315 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2362 to 774 and 40 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1969 rose and 559 declined, while 87 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 10.36% to 11.77.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.10% or 1.28 to $1278.98 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December fell 0.34% or 0.19 to hit $55.14 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract fell 0.76% or 0.47 to trade at $61.40 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.23% to 1.1764, while USD/JPY rose 0.12% to 113.01.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.15% at 93.86.