Basic Material Most Active Stocks: Alcoa Inc (NYSE:AA), Barrick Gold (NYSE:ABX), The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE:DOW), Petroleo Brasileiro Petrobras (NYSE:PBR)

Alcoa Inc (NYSE:AA) was upgraded by analysts at Macquarie from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday. Alcoa Inc (NYSE:AA) stock performance was 3.13% in last session and finished the day at $12.87. Traded volume was 39.76million shares in the last session and the average volume of the stock remained 27.04million shares. The beta of the stock remained 1.86. Alcoa Inc (NYSE:AA) insider ownership is 0.20%.

Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (NYSE:ABX) unveiled a new executive compensation plan on Monday, and lead director J. Brett Harvey said the company might select two new board members after its annual meeting on April 30. Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (NYSE:ABX) dropped -2.57 percent to $17.83 Monday on volume of 10.14million shares. The intra-day range of the stock was $17.75 to $18.28. Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (NYSE:ABX) has a market capitalization of $20.77billion.

The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE: DOW) announced today that its joint venture membrane chlor-alkali facility with Mitsui & Co., Ltd. of Tokyo, Japan (“Mitsui”) successfully initiated full-scale, commercial production. The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE:DOW)’s stock on Mar 31, 2014 reported a increase of 0.81% to the closing price of $48.59. Its fifty two weeks range is $29.81 -$50.96. The total market capitalization recorded $59.08billion. The overall volume in the last trading session was 8.20million shares. In its share capital, DOW has 1.22billion outstanding shares.

Brazil’s state-run oil company, Petroleo Brasileiro Petrobras SA (ADR) (NYSE:PBR) said on Monday its oil output rose 0.3 percent in February from January. On Monday, shares of Petroleo Brasileiro Petrobras SA (ADR) (NYSE:PBR) dropped -0.23% to close the day at $13.15. Company return on investment (ROI) is 5.10% and its monthly performance is recorded as 17.41%. Petroleo Brasileiro Petrobras SA (ADR) (NYSE:PBR) quarterly revenue growth is -2.16%.