ASX property shares and real estate investment trusts (REITs) led the ASX 200 market sectors this week, gaining 3.51% over the past five trading days.
Overall, nine of the 11 market sectors finished the week higher.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) rose 0.5% over the five days to close at 7,194.9 points on Friday.
Let's review the week.
Property led the ASX sectors this week
The Reserve Bank of Australia decided to keep the official cash rate on hold at this week's meeting. That was good news for the market in general and, in particular, interest rate-sensitive sectors like A-REITs.
The board won't meet again until 5 February. It will make the next cash rate announcement on 6 February. After that, the board will commence its new 6-week rotation of meetings for a total of eight in 2024.
We also received new data from the Bureau of Statistics this week showing the economy grew by just 0.2% in the September quarter.
This takes the annual rate of gross domestic product (GDP) growth to a pretty weak 2.1%, providing further evidence that the economy is responding to higher interest rates.
This may mean we are at the end of the rate hiking cycle, which would be good for ASX real estate stocks.
Many experts are still forecasting rates to fall in 2024, but later in the year than previously expected.
Among the larger ASX 200 REITs, the big winners this week were Charter Hall Group (ASX: CHC) shares, up 5%, National Storage REIT (ASX: NSR) shares, up 3.96%, and GPT Group (ASX: GPT) shares, up 3.6%.
In other news, my colleague Tony discussed two ASX real estate shares that everyone's piling on to today.
ASX 200 market sector snapshot
Here's how the 11 market sectors stacked up this week, according to CommSec data.
Over the past five days:
| S&P/ASX 200 market sector | Change this week |
| A-REIT (ASX: XPJ) | 3.51% |
| Consumer Staples (ASX: XSJ) | 2.59% |
| Information Technology (ASX: XIJ) | 2.14% |
| Healthcare (ASX: XHJ) | 2.07% |
| Materials (ASX: XMJ) | 2.04% |
| Communication (ASX: XTJ) | 2.04% |
| Consumer Discretionary (ASX: XDJ) | 1.7% |
| Financials (ASX: XFJ) | 1.54% |
| Industrials (ASX: XNJ) | 1.2% |
| Utilities (ASX: XUJ) | (0.76%) |
| Energy (ASX: XEJ) | (1.3%) |
