Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Basic Materials, Telecoms and Healthcare sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.48% to hit a new all time high, while the S&P 500 index added 0.36%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 0.10%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO), which rose 2.27% or 1.17 points to trade at 52.81 at the close. Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) added 1.67% or 5.39 points to end at 328.13 and Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) was up 1.13% or 3.82 points to 342.37 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Boeing Co (NYSE:BA), which lost 1.19% or 2.99 points to trade at 248.12 in late trade. Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:WBA) declined 0.78% or 0.42 points to end at 53.30 and Chevron Corp (NYSE:CVX) shed 0.46% or 0.48 points to 102.94.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were PPG Industries Inc (NYSE:PPG) which rose 8.73% to 167.41, Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ALXN) which was up 3.86% to settle at 163.62 and Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) which gained 3.76% to close at 43.83.
The worst performers were State Street Corp (NYSE:STT) which was down 7.00% to 80.45 in late trade, Bank of New York Mellon (NYSE:BK) which lost 4.08% to settle at 46.05 and EOG Resources Inc (NYSE:EOG) which was down 3.28% to 70.44 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were General Finance Corporation (NASDAQ:GFN) which rose 55.55% to 18.93, MER Telemanagement Solutions Ltd (NASDAQ:MTSL) which was up 34.32% to settle at 3.855 and Tian Ruixiang Holdings Ltd (NASDAQ:TIRX) which gained 30.15% to close at 16.10.
The worst performers were Sequential Brands Group Inc (NASDAQ:SQBG) which was down 36.69% to 17.5050 in late trade, Wilhelmina (NASDAQ:WHLM) which lost 30.56% to settle at 7.50 and NXT-ID Inc (NASDAQ:NXTD) which was down 25.04% to 0.7796 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1674 to 1377 and 99 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1755 fell and 1423 advanced, while 111 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 1.93% to 16.25 a new 52-week low.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.53% or 9.40 to $1776.20 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.54% or 0.34 to hit $63.12 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.33% or 0.22 to trade at $66.72 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.14% to 1.1982, while USD/JPY rose 0.05% to 108.80.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.09% at 91.532.