• by Wayne Friedman , March 19, 2020

Major media companies witnessed decent stock price gains on Thursday mostly outperforming the marketplace overall, which witnessed a relatively calm day versus recent days of big percentage declines.

“There was a lot of separation between winners and losers,” said Michael Santoli, senior marketplace commentator at CNBC, speaking for Thursday’s market action.

Two key media stock indexes well-outperformed the Dow Jones Industrials Index -- somewhat of a rarity.

The Dow Jones U.S. Broadcasting & Entertainment Index grew 4.4% more to 1,115, while the Dow Jones U.S. Media Index added 3.7% to $742.03. By way of comparison, the Dow Jones Industrials Index was up 1% (188 points) on Thursday to 20,088.

All this comes as media stocks -- and the overall stock market -- have plummeted over recent weeks due to COVID-19 issues, down around 30% to 35% on average.

On Thursday, Dish Network closed up 17% to $21.87, while Roku grew 9.8% to $74.12, AMC Networks added 8.4% to $27.93, Walt Disney extended 7% to $94.93 and Discovery added 6.7% to $21.22.

Modest media companies showing improvement included ViacomCBS, 3.4% higher to $12.62; Charter Communications, 3% higher to $393.06; Fox Corp., rising 2.5% to $21.94; and Comcast Corp., inching up 0.7% to $35.94.

Many media technology stocks added to their stock prices, with Netflix growing 5.3% to $332.03, Amazon up 2.8% to $1,880.95, Facebook rising 4.2% to $153.13 and Google adding 1.7% more to 1,115.29.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Index grew 2.3% to 7,150, with the S&P 500 inching up 0.5% to 2,409.

Two major TV station groups posted perhaps some of the best gains on the day: Sinclair was up 13% to $14.36 and Nexstar Media Group also growing 13% to $61.86.

Other media stocks that had a big day included TiVo, up 22% to $5.71; The Trade Desk, growing 16% to $167.44; and Comscore, rising 13.6% to $2.59.

The Dow Jones U.S. Media Agencies Index declined by 1.3% to $383.34, while the big market leader Apple was down slightly -- 0.8% to $244.78.