ASX property shares and real estate investment trusts (REITs) led the ASX 200 market sectors last week with a 1.42% gain over the five trading days.
This was a superior performance to the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO), which finished in the red by 0.7%. The benchmark closed the week at 7,971.6 points on Friday.
The ASX 200's loss for the week was ironic given it crashed through 8,000 points for the first time on Wednesday and set a new record high at 8,083.7.
Five of the 11 market sectors finished the week in the green.
Let's recap the week that was.
Image source: Getty Images
Property shares led the ASX sectors last week
Among the sector's big players, Goodman Group (ASX: GMG) shares rose by 3.67% to finish at $37.10 on Friday.
The industrial property and data centre specialist is riding the artificial intelligence (AI) market tailwind.
Goodman Group owns an $80.6 billion global portfolio of property assets. It has another $12.9 billion worth of real estate in the pipeline. About 40% of that pipeline is data centres which will power AI.
Goodman did not release any official news last week. It likely benefitted from ongoing speculation of a US interest rate cut given it is heavily invested there.
HMC Capital Ltd (ASX: HMC) shares ascended 3.03% to close out the week at $7.65 apiece.
The Lendlease Group (ASX: LLC) share price rose by 2.68% to finish at $6.13 on Friday.
Charter Hall Group (ASX: CHC) shares lifted 2.12% over the five trading days to finish at $12.55 per share.
Dexus (ASX: DXS) shares rose by 1.03% to close the session on Friday at $6.84 apiece. The ASX REIT announced two new executive appointments last week.
Scentre Group (ASX: SCG) shares lost 0.76% to finish at $3.25 on Friday. Stockland Corporation Ltd (ASX: SGP) shares lost 0.22% to finish the week at $4.51.
GPT Group (ASX: GPT) shares shed 0.46% over the week and finished at $4.36 per share. Vicinity Centres (ASX: VCX) lost 1.74% to end the week at $1.98 per share.
Top broker Macquarie is recommending that ASX investors go overweight on ASX REITs now.
As my colleague Zach reported, Macquarie's recommendation is driven by its insights into the shifting economic cycle and potential rate cuts.
The broker said ASX REITs tend to do well when interest rates fall. This is because investors start looking away from cash investments to ASX stocks for more attractive yields, and REITs have them to offer.
While we're on the subject, you can check out the six best-performing ASX REITs of FY24 here.
ASX 200 market sector snapshot
Here's how the 11 market sectors stacked up last week, according to CommSec data.
Over the five trading days:
| S&P/ASX 200 market sector | Change last week |
| A-REIT (ASX: XPJ) | 1.42% |
| Consumer Staples (ASX: XSJ) | 0.56% |
| Industrials (ASX: XNJ) | 0.32% |
| Communication (ASX: XTJ) | 0.0065% |
| Healthcare (ASX: XHJ) | 0.0037% |
| Consumer Discretionary (ASX: XDJ) | (0.084%) |
| Financials (ASX: XFJ) | (0.099%) |
| Utilities (ASX: XUJ) | (1.12%) |
| Energy (ASX: XEJ) | (1.44%) |
| Information Technology (ASX: XIJ) | (2.64%) |
| Materials (ASX: XMJ) | (3.02%) |
