Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Oil & Gas, Technology and Telecoms sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.32%, while the S&P 500 index climbed 0.44%, and the NASDAQ Composite index gained 0.87%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were United Technologies Corporation (N:UTX), which rose 2.19% or 2.01 points to trade at 93.61 at the close. Apple Inc (O:AAPL) added 1.49% or 1.41 points to end at 96.10 and Intel Corporation (O:INTC) was up 1.35% or 0.39 points to 29.19 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Visa Inc (N:V), which lost 1.37% or 0.99 points to trade at 71.14 in late trade. Boeing Company (N:BA) declined 1.12% or 1.31 points to end at 115.59 and General Electric Company (N:GE) shed 0.89% or 0.26 points to 28.96.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Chesapeake Energy Corporation (N:CHK) which rose 22.83% to 2.69, First Solar Inc (O:FSLR) which was up 12.40% to settle at 69.45 and Marathon Petroleum Corporation (N:MPC) which gained 7.47% to close at 33.97.
The worst performers were Extra Space Storage Inc (N:EXR) which was down 4.34% to 82.17 in late trade, Transocean Ltd (N:RIG) which lost 3.98% to settle at 8.20 and Morgan Stanley (N:MS) which was down 3.92% to 23.71 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Sequential (O:SQBG) which rose 32.92% to 7.55, Ixia (O:XXIA) which was up 27.59% to settle at 11.93 and Draftday Fantasy Sports Inc (O:DDAY) which gained 25.42% to close at 0.4890.
The worst performers were Skyline Medical Inc (O:SKLN) which was down 40.97% to 1.7000 in late trade, Nephrogenex (O:NRX) which lost 37.50% to settle at 0.7000 and KBS Fashion Group Ltd (O:KBSF) which was down 29.50% to 0.3800 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2127 to 1238 and 33 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1640 rose and 928 declined, while 72 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 1.33% to 20.70.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was up 0.61% or 7.40 to $1230.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 1.04% or 0.33 to hit $32.20 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 3.52% or 1.17 to trade at $34.44 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.07% to 1.1010, while USD/JPY fell 0.03% to 112.07.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.04% at 97.50.