Dhirendra Tripathi, Daniel Shvartsman

Investing.com – Starting the year just under $49 a barrel, prices rose to a high of $85.41 in October and is poised to finish with its . That pretty much decided which sector and companies was going to top S&P 500.

Petroleum and natural gas exploration Devon Energy The (NYSE:) best performing S&P 500 stock in the year through December 30, as soaring sales and profits, helped by booming economies, buybacks and higher dividends, boosted returns to over 180%. Marathon Oil The second place is achieved by the NYSE:, but it still has gains exceeding 145%. Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:), at eighth spot but still managing to more than double, comes in as the third energy stock among top 10 winners in S&P 500.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:) is the third on the podium with more than 142% gains, successfully riding both product and services to meet needs for cybersecurity solutions in a Cloud environment where everything — from studies to shopping – has gone digital.

And then there’s Moderna (NASDAQ:) at fourth position – up around 141% — riding on the huge success of its life-saving mRNA Covid-vaccine and the ongoing demand for vaccinations worldwide.

Ford was recognized by investors for moving to electric vehicles. This is best demonstrated in the F-150 Lightning, an electric pickup truck. Ford finished the year fifth in the index. Its market capital surpassed General Motors (NYSE:) this week for the first-time since 2016.

With a rise of 132%, Bath Body Works (NYSE:) is the other big winner after spinning off Victoria’s Secret & Co (NYSE:).

Nvidia (NASDAQ):, a favourite of analysts is up as well with gains close to 127%. This is because of the high demand for Nvidia’s chips which power laptops and Cloud servers.

Steel-maker Nucor Tech research agency (NYSE: Gartner (NYSE:) round up the top 10 winners in S&P 500.

Casino-owner and sports-betting company Penn National Gaming (NASDAQ:) is the worst performing S&P 500 stock this year. Although it briefly rode on the waves of retail investor excitement for both sport betting and David Portnoy founder of Penn subsidiary Barstool Sports, the stock lost 41 % as the panic raged.

Las Vegas Sands Wynn Resorts (NASDAQ) and Wynn (NYSE) were other sectors that fell behind, having been hit hard by the Pandemic in Macao and Chinese authorities’ clampdown against Macao casino operators. These sectors fell by 37% to 24% this year. This is “good” for the second- and eighth worst performers on the index.

Activision (NASDAQ) was another huge loser. There were a number of claims of misconduct sexually by top staff members and accusations that management ignored these allegations. Investors felt rattled. It was made worse by delays in the release of popular video games. In many ways, the epidemic impacted video game publisher in many ways. Developers and other creative workers were in shortage, but there was also a shortage of chips available to console-makers. Sony Microsoft (NASDAQ) and Activision (NYSE:) both had a negative impact on business. Activision fell 27% in 2011, ranking 6th among the largest companies.

Global Payments Inc (NYSE 🙂 lost 37% amid fears about disruption in payments. Fidelity N Information Services Inc (NYSE 🙂 also suffered, dropping 22%. The two companies held their respective losses. unsuccessful merger talksThey saw challenges ahead at the close of 2020 MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:) faced a direct challenge in its electronic bond trading platform business. Tradeweb Markets Inc MarketAxess saw its shares drop 27% over the past year. This was 5th lowest in the index.

Viatris Inc. (NASDAQ): Viatris Inc. struggled its first full-year as a publicly traded company after Mylan, the generic drugmaker, and Mylan merged. Pfizer UpJohn, a spin-off of (NYSE:), fell 28%. Citrix Systems Inc. (NASDAQ) was down 26%. It is 7th place on the list, despite reports that Elliott Management or Vista Equity may be planning to acquire this networking system company. IPG Photonics Corporation, NASDAQ:, rounds out the list. The laser manufacturer and its sector are among the few losers in tech and semiconductor supply chains.