ASX property shares and real estate investment trusts (REITs) led the ASX 200 market sectors last week with a 3.17% gain over the five trading days.
This was vastly superior to the performance of the benchmark index, with the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) moving just 0.14% higher over the week to finish at 7,629 points on Friday.
Seven of the 11 market sectors finished the week in the green.
Let's review.
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Property shares led the ASX sectors last week
Among the big players in the property sector, Goodman Group (ASX: GMG) shares rose by 4.12% over the week to finish at $32.63 per share on Friday.
The industrial property specialist is up 30% in 2024 alone. It's riding the wave of investor enthusiasm for data centres amid the rise in artificial intelligence (AI).
Goodman has 85 projects in the development pipeline worth a collective $12.9 billion, of which 37% are data centres.
Macquarie believes Goodman's strong share price growth can continue. It has an outperform rating on Goodman Group with a 12-month share price target of $34.84.
Scentre Group (ASX: SCG) shares also rose by 0.64% this week to finish at $3.15 on Friday.
The Westfield shopping mall operator has had a less impressive run with its share price gaining 5% in the year-to-date.
Stockland Corporation Ltd (ASX: SGP) shares gained 1.85% to finish the week at $4.41.
Stockland is a diversified property group that develops, owns, and manages retail and logistics centres, office towers, residential communities, and retirement villages.
The company released a market update on Monday. Over 3Q FY24, its commercial property portfolio delivered leasing spreads of 42% for logistics assets and 3.5% for town centres.
Stockland sold 1,242 lots in its masterplanned communities. The group commented that this reflected a continuing improvement in sales over the past four quarters.
Citi has a buy rating and a $5.20 price target on Stockland shares.
GPT Group (ASX: GPT) added 0.48% over the week to finish on Friday at $4.17.
Vicinity Centres (ASX: VCX) lost 0.1% to end the week at $1.91 per share.
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) | 3.17% |
| Information Technology (ASX: XIJ) | 2.31% |
| Consumer Discretionary (ASX: XDJ) | 2.14% |
| Financials (ASX: XFJ) | 1.33% |
| Healthcare (ASX: XHJ) | 1.1% |
| Industrials (ASX: XNJ) | 0.28% |
| Communication (ASX: XTJ) | 0.09% |
| Utilities (ASX: XUJ) | (0.2%) |
| Materials (ASX: XMJ) | (0.3%) |
| Energy (ASX: XEJ) | (1.81%) |
| Consumer Staples (ASX: XSJ) | (2.28%) |
