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.
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%) |
