U.S. shares higher at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average up 1.20%

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

At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.20%, while the S&P 500 index gained 0.89%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 0.39%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Honeywell International Inc (NASDAQ: HON ), which rose 2.84% or 5.24 points to trade at 189.88 at the close. Caterpillar Inc (NYSE: CAT ) added 2.47% or 5.30 points to end at 220.31 and Dow Inc (NYSE: DOW ) was up 2.48% or 1.24 points to 51.26 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT ), which lost 2.58% or 7.20 points to trade at 272.23 in late trade. Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC ) declined 2.18% or 0.65 points to end at 29.16 and Salesforce Inc (NYSE: CRM ) gained 0.22% or 0.40 points to 185.25.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were NRG Energy Inc (NYSE: NRG ) which rose 6.83% to 33.63, Fleetcor Technologies Inc (NYSE: FLT ) which was up 6.35% to settle at 199.08 and Assurant Inc (NYSE: AIZ ) which gained 5.98% to close at 111.19.

The worst performers were First Republic Bank (NYSE: FRC ) which was down 47.11% to 12.18 in late trade, Gap Inc (NYSE: GPS ) which lost 2.89% to settle at 9.42 and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT ) which was down 2.58% to 272.23 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Loyalty Ventures Inc (NASDAQ: LYLT ) which rose 153.78% to 0.22, Lifecore Biomedical Inc (NASDAQ: LFCR ) which was up 85.63% to settle at 3.10 and GeneDx Holdings Corp (NASDAQ: WGS ) which gained 41.30% to close at 0.51.

The worst performers were Aziyo Biologics Inc (NASDAQ: AZYO ) which was down 62.82% to 1.45 in late trade, Pear Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ: PEAR ) which lost 46.27% to settle at 0.21 and Acrivon Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ: ACRV ) which was down 41.95% to 11.61 at the close.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1903 to 1130 and 88 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1816 fell and 1804 advanced, while 151 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

The CBOE Volatility Index , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 5.33% to 24.15.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.47% or 9.30 to $1,982.80 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 1.31% or 0.88 to hit $67.81 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 0.09% or 0.07 to trade at $73.80 a barrel.

EUR/USD was unchanged 0.03% to 1.07, while USD/JPY fell 0.01% to 131.29.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.44% at 102.90.