REIT Index Outperforms Major Indexes for 1Q

NEW YORK CITY-For the week ending April 20, the Morgan Stanley REIT Index (RMS) closed at 363.73, slipping 0.2% compared to the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which was down 1.1%, and the S&P 500, which fell back 0.9% as did the Nasdaq. So far this year, the RMS is down 0.4%, outperforming the Dow, the S&P and the Nasdaq which are off 1.5%, 5.6% and 12.6%, respectively, for the period, according to the weekly Bear Stearns REIT Monitor.

New outflows from dedicated real estate mutual funds amounted to $19.2 million for the week ending April 18 although due to an increase in market value total assets increased $100 million to $10.3 billion. Average trading volume for these funds over the last 30 days rose 3.7%, to 16.9 million shares, from the previous week.