U.S. shares higher at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.84%

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.