U.S. shares higher at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.17%

Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Technology , Healthcare and Industrials sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.17%, while the S&P 500 index added 0.21%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 0.27%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD ), which rose 1.64% or 3.22 points to trade at 199.24 at the close. Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO ) added 1.32% or 0.64 points to end at 49.25 and Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC ) was up 1.13% or 0.50 points to 44.73 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE: VZ ), which lost 2.32% or 1.35 points to trade at 56.83 in late trade. Chevron Corp (NYSE: CVX ) declined 1.19% or 1.39 points to end at 115.38 and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ: WBA ) shed 1.13% or 0.58 points to 50.55.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were Dollar General Corporation (NYSE: DG ) which rose 7.16% to 127.00, SBA Communications Corp (NASDAQ: SBAC ) which was up 4.34% to settle at 212.61 and Total System Services Inc (NYSE: TSS ) which gained 4.02% to close at 123.00.

The worst performers were PVH Corp (NYSE: PVH ) which was down 14.87% to 84.49 in late trade, Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE: CHK ) which lost 4.67% to settle at 2.040 and Perrigo Company PLC (NYSE: PRGO ) which was down 4.58% to 43.08 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Organovo Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: ONVO ) which rose 103.36% to 0.805, Obalon Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ: OBLN ) which was up 39.82% to settle at 1.58 and SilverSun Technologies Inc (NASDAQ: SSNT ) which gained 34.23% to close at 3.2349.

The worst performers were Destination Maternity Corporation (NASDAQ: DEST ) which was down 22.32% to 1.27 in late trade, Zafgen Inc (NASDAQ: ZFGN ) which lost 20.08% to settle at 1.91 and Digimarc Corporation (NASDAQ: DMRC ) which was down 18.32% to 52.91 at the close.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1546 to 1437 and 107 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1395 fell and 1244 advanced, while 99 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

The CBOE Volatility Index , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 3.35% to 17.30.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.54% or 6.90 to $1287.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 4.08% or 2.40 to hit $56.41 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract unchanged 0.00% or 0.00 to trade at $65.09 a barrel.

EUR/USD was down 0.01% to 1.1129, while USD/JPY unchanged 0.00% to 109.60.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.05% at 98.080.