U.S. shares higher at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.52%

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

At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.52%, while the S&P 500 index gained 1.18%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 1.76%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Salesforce.com Inc (NYSE: CRM ), which rose 3.28% or 6.95 points to trade at 218.82 at the close. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT ) added 2.80% or 6.61 points to end at 242.38 and Visa Inc Class A (NYSE: V ) was up 2.44% or 5.17 points to 216.90 in late trade.

Biggest losers included UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE: UNH ), which lost 1.32% or 4.91 points to trade at 367.16 in late trade. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ ) declined 0.94% or 1.54 points to end at 162.81 and Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE: PG ) shed 0.88% or 1.19 points to 134.24.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were Diamondback Energy Inc (NASDAQ: FANG ) which rose 10.48% to 81.19, Marathon Oil Corporation (NYSE: MRO ) which was up 10.35% to settle at 11.79 and Cimarex Energy Co (NYSE: XEC ) which gained 8.42% to close at 64.39.

The worst performers were CarMax Inc (NYSE: KMX ) which was down 7.07% to 123.28 in late trade, PVH Corp (NYSE: PVH ) which lost 4.50% to settle at 100.94 and Capri Holdings Ltd (NYSE: CPRI ) which was down 3.33% to 49.30 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Uxin Ltd (NASDAQ: UXIN ) which rose 69.23% to 1.980, Applied Molecular Transport Inc (NASDAQ: AMTI ) which was up 45.13% to settle at 63.87 and Liberty Tripadvisor Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: LTRPB ) which gained 34.14% to close at 51.00.

The worst performers were AzurRx BioPharma Inc (NASDAQ: AZRX ) which was down 23.88% to 1.020 in late trade, Recon Technology Ltd (NASDAQ: RCON ) which lost 20.52% to settle at 5.150 and Akumin Inc (NASDAQ: AKU ) which was down 17.57% to 3.05 at the close.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2465 to 633 and 63 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2377 rose and 834 declined, while 67 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

The CBOE Volatility Index , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 10.67% to 17.33 a new 52-week low.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.85% or 14.60 to $1730.20 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 3.67% or 2.17 to hit $61.33 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 3.09% or 1.94 to trade at $64.68 a barrel.

EUR/USD was up 0.38% to 1.1772, while USD/JPY fell 0.07% to 110.62.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.31% at 92.948.