Investing.com – U.S. stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Basic Materials, Health Care and Oil & Gas sectors led shares higher.
At the close in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.20%, while the S&P 500 index climbed 1.03%, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 1.03%.
The best performers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were EI du Pont de Nemours and Company (NYSE:DD), which rose 3.06% or 2.26 points to trade at 76.00 at the close. Meanwhile, Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) added 2.87% or 0.92 points to end at 32.99 and Visa Inc (NYSE:V) was up 2.61% or 6.91 points to 271.80 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ), which rose 0.13% or 0.06 points to trade at 47.86 at the close. Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK) added 0.20% or 0.12 points to end at 59.17 and Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) was up 0.26% or 0.11 points to 41.79.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Hospira Inc (NYSE:HSP) which rose 35.25% to 87.64, Ball Corporation (NYSE:BLL) which was up 8.89% to settle at 72.03 and Denbury Resources Inc (NYSE:DNR) which gained 8.55% to close at 8.89.
The worst performers were Teradata Corporation (NYSE:TDC) which was down 10.20% to 42.19 in late trade, Prudential Financial Inc (NYSE:PRU) which lost 5.72% to settle at 75.32 and Twenty-First Century Fox A Inc (NASDAQ:FOXA) which was down 5.37% to 32.80 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were QKL Stores Inc (NASDAQ:QKLS) which rose 79.58% to 3.060, E2open Inc (NASDAQ:EOPN) which was up 39.77% to settle at 8.540 and Glu Mobile Inc (NASDAQ:GLUU) which gained 30.73% to close at 5.02.
The worst performers were QuickLogic Corporation (NASDAQ:QUIK) which was down 25.26% to 2.19 in late trade, Adept Technology Inc (NASDAQ:ADEP) which lost 19.13% to settle at 7.06 and FreeSeas Inc (NASDAQ:FREE) which was down 18.18% to 0.090 at the close.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the New York Stock Exchange by 2303 to 492; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2074 rose and 699 declined, while 4 ended unchanged.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 7.91% to 16.88.
Gold for April delivery was up 0.09% or 1.20 to $1265.70 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude Oil for delivery in March rose 4.54% or 2.20 to hit $50.65 a barrel, while the March Brent Oil contract rose 4.40% or 2.38 to trade at $56.55 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 1.22% to 1.1482, while USD/JPY rose 0.21% to 117.52.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.97% at 93.66.