6 Best Performing S&P 500 Stocks Of 2016

The year 2016 has been kind to the markets despite much economic turbulence experienced globally during the year. The domestic economic growth came in at an anemic 0.8 percent in the first quarter, casting doubts on the sustainability of the economic recovery in the works.

In the meantime, the Chinese economy was also stuttering. Additionally, there was considerable uncertainty surrounding the U.S. presidential elections, while the Brexit referendum vote triggered concerns about the economic ramification of the decision.

Resilient Markets

The markets showed resilience in standing up to these challenges and emerging with flying colors. The S&P 500 has been up 10.82 percent in the year-to-date period, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average 2 Minute and the NASDAQ Composite are 14.4 percent and 9.3 percent higher, respectively, during the same period. The Dow stands in the threshold of breaking above the psychological barrier of 20,000 for the first time ever, even as the other gauges are trading just off their highs.

FANG Rally Loses Steam In 2016

The FANG stocks that were responsible for much of the markets' advances in 2015, given their heavy weightings in the major indexes, appear on track to close in the green for the year, although the gains have been much more moderate.

Facebook Inc FB, Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN, Netflix, Inc. NFLX and Google's parent Alphabet Inc GOOG GOOGL have gained 13.7 percent, 14 percent, 10.6 percent and 4.4 percent, respectively. In comparison, Netflix had run up 134 percent in 2015.

Old Economy Stocks Outperform

Among the S&P sectors, old economy sectors such as energy, financials, material and industrials fared well this year. Healthcare is the only major sector in the red currently.

Top S&P 500 Stocks

Here is the list of the top 6 S&P 500 stocks of the year 2016:

1. NVIDIA Corporation NVDA: (+221 percent year-to-date).

After moving roughly sideways until May, Nvidia began a steady climb that is continuing through the end of the year. The company is the unparalleled leader in the graphics chip market. The company has consistently delivered forecast-beating results.

In a note released earlier this month, Loop Capital said the company's gaming business would benefit from the continued rise of eSports, traditional gamers, artificial reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). For context, the gaming market accounted for 62 percent of NVIDIA's third-quarter revenues.

Another key growth driver for NVIDIA is likely to come from autonomous car market, especially from Tesla Motors Inc TSLA. Nvidia already supplies Tegra processors for infotainment for the automobile market and provides an end-to-end AI computing platform for autonomous driving.

2. ONEOK, Inc. OKE: (+137.4 percent in the year-to-date period).

After a lukewarm start to the year, ONEOK stock saw a steady rise till June. Moving roughly sideways once again, the stock has jumped in to partake in the Trump rally. This natural gas utility company has been riding on the rebound in commodity prices this year. ONEOK is the general partner of master limited partnership Oneok Partners LP OKS.

3. Freeport-McMoRan Inc FCX: (+107.5 percent in the year-to-date period).

Freeport-McMoRan, which sunk close to an all-time low in January this year, has staged a nice recovery since then. The copper miner's fortunes turned around as the commodity story improved and the company exercised financial discipline in extricating itself from the rot.

4. Computer Sciences Corporation CSC: (+86.8 percent in the year-to-date period).

This technology services company had a so-so year until May. After a steep ascent, the stock was locked in another consolidation phase until October and has seen another leg up since. This company consistently beats Street earnings expectations and has gone through some transformation this year.

In late 2015, the company spun off its U.S. government business into a separate publicly traded company CSRA Inc CSRA. The company also announced plans to merge itself with Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co HPE Enterprise Services segment, with the merger expected to be completed by the end of March 2017.

5. Newmont Mining Corp NEM: (+75.4 percent in the year-to-date period).

This gold miner has run up along with the rise in gold prices. Gold futures have been up 6.6 percent for the year, with its safe haven status offering it support in the first half of the year when risk aversion ran amok. However, with the dollar strength in the wake of expectations of a Fed hike, which materialized in December this year, gold has come off the boil. Nevertheless, this stock has clocked in a remarkable return.

6. Applied Materials, Inc. AMAT: (+74.5 percent in the year-to-date period).

This chip equipment maker has seen a steady climb since February this year.

Apart from these S&P 500 companies, strong gains were recorded by companies such as Sprint Corp S, which clocked gains of 136 percent in the year-to-date period. Thus, as the year 2016 hits the homestretch, investors can look back at the year with a smile in their face, as the decent gains of the year set the cash registers ringing.