U.S. shares higher at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average up 1.59%

Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Utilities , Basic Materials and Healthcare sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.59% to hit a new 6-month high, while the S&P 500 index gained 1.54%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 0.98%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO ), which rose 4.21% or 2.07 points to trade at 51.19 at the close. Dow Inc (NYSE: DOW ) added 4.13% or 1.95 points to end at 49.22 and International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM ) was up 3.87% or 4.78 points to 128.18 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL ), which lost 2.07% or 2.78 points to trade at 131.40 in late trade. Salesforce.com Inc (NYSE: CRM ) declined 1.62% or 4.56 points to end at 276.69 and Walmart Inc (NYSE: WMT ) gained 0.06% or 0.09 points to 147.68.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were DXC Technology Co (NYSE: DXC ) which rose 11.63% to 22.37, Brown Forman (NYSE: BFb ) which was up 10.04% to settle at 79.89 and Lam Research Corp (NASDAQ: LRCX ) which gained 6.50% to close at 362.70.

The worst performers were Cimarex Energy Co (NYSE: XEC ) which was down 6.12% to 27.13 in late trade, Diamondback Energy Inc (NASDAQ: FANG ) which lost 5.61% to settle at 36.32 and Marathon Oil Corporation (NYSE: MRO ) which was down 3.76% to 5.12 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Corcept Therapeutics Incorporated (NASDAQ: CORT ) which rose 58.45% to 19.87, Lonestar Resources Ltd (NASDAQ: LONE ) which was up 39.09% to settle at 0.371 and Vera Bradley Inc (NASDAQ: VRA ) which gained 31.98% to close at 7.14.

The worst performers were Sunesis Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ: SNSS ) which was down 37.00% to 0.1686 in late trade, Amarin Corporation PLC (NASDAQ: AMRN ) which lost 30.58% to settle at 5.04 and Jiayin Group Inc (NASDAQ: JFIN ) which was down 22.67% to 2.90 at the close.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1943 to 1090 and 101 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1653 rose and 1160 declined, while 82 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

The CBOE Volatility Index , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 1.72% to 26.57 a new 1-month high.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 1.50% or 29.65 to $1949.25 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October fell 2.74% or 1.17 to hit $41.59 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract rose 0.09% or 0.04 to trade at $44.41 a barrel.

EUR/USD was down 0.00% to 1.1852, while USD/JPY fell 0.03% to 106.15.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.33% at 92.645.