U.S. shares higher at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.35%

Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Oil & Gas , Telecoms and Financials sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.35% to hit a new all time high, while the S&P 500 index climbed 0.34%, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 0.17%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Chevron Corporation (NYSE: CVX ), which rose 3.40% or 4.11 points to trade at 125.00 at the close. Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE: GS ) added 2.44% or 6.22 points to end at 261.40 and Nike Inc (NYSE: NKE ) was up 1.73% or 1.10 points to 64.69 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC ), which lost 1.85% or 0.88 points to trade at 46.68 in late trade. Boeing Co (NYSE: BA ) declined 0.89% or 2.64 points to end at 295.26 and 3M Company (NYSE: MMM ) shed 0.86% or 2.04 points to 234.88.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were Envision Healthcare Corp (NYSE: EVHC ) which rose 6.16% to 34.63, Charter Communications Inc (NASDAQ: CHTR ) which was up 5.75% to settle at 334.58 and Discovery Communications C Inc (NASDAQ: DISCK ) which gained 5.42% to close at 22.27.

The worst performers were Pacific Gas & Electric Co (NYSE: PCG ) which was down 13.72% to 44.11 in late trade, Scana Corporation (NYSE: SCG ) which lost 9.08% to settle at 37.57 and Edison International (NYSE: EIX ) which was down 7.52% to 63.16 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Long Island Iced Tea Corp (NASDAQ: LTEA ) which rose 185.66% to 6.97, SAExploration Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: SAEX ) which was up 54.76% to settle at 1.950 and AEterna Zentaris Inc (NASDAQ: AEZS ) which gained 38.85% to close at 2.791.

The worst performers were Wins Finance Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: WINS ) which was down 56.96% to 154.95 in late trade, Genetic Technologies Ltd (NASDAQ: GENE ) which lost 33.62% to settle at 1.155 and LongFin Corp Class A (NASDAQ: LFIN ) which was down 33.17% to 45.78 at the close.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2035 to 1105 and 37 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1687 rose and 861 declined, while 88 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

The CBOE Volatility Index , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 2.37% to 9.49.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.15% or 1.90 to $1271.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 0.24% or 0.14 to hit $58.23 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract rose 0.20% or 0.13 to trade at $64.69 a barrel.

EUR/USD was up 0.01% to 1.1873, while USD/JPY fell 0.07% to 113.32.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.10% at 92.85.