Dow And S&P 500 Set New Record Closing Highs

(RTTNews) - After ending the previous session mostly higher following the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement, stocks saw further upside during trading on Thursday. The gains on the day lifted the Dow and the S&P 500 to new record closing highs.

Banking stocks showed a strong move to the upside over the course of the trading day, driving the Dow Jones Banks Index up by 1.5 percent. The gain extended a recent upward trend by the index, which reached a nearly six-year closing high.

Industry giants Citigroup (C), Bank of America (BAC), and JP Morgan (JPM) turned in some of the banking sector's best performances of the day.

Considerable strength was also visible among airline stocks, as reflected by the 1.6 percent gain posted by the NYSE Arca Airline Index. The strength in the oil-sensitive sector came as crude for October delivery tumbled $1.35 to $93.07 a barrel.

Semiconductor stocks also saw significant strength, resulting in a 1.5 percent advance by the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index. With the gain, the index reached its best closing level in thirteen years.

Brokerage, networking, and computer hardware stocks also posted notable gains, while gold stocks saw further downside amid a decrease by the price of the precious metal.

The major averages ended the day firmly in positive territory, near their highs for the session. The Dow jumped 109.14 points or 0.6 percent to 17,265.99, the Nasdaq advanced 31.24 points or 0.7 percent to 4,593.43 and the S&P 500 climbed 9.79 points or 0.5 percent to 2,011.36.