REIT Index Maintains Its Strength

NEW YORK CITY-The Morgan Stanley Real Estate Index (RMS) slipped to 382.23 on Friday, down 2.13 points from its all-time high the day before. Year-to-date, the RMS is up by 4.3% while the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up by 2%, the Standard & Poor’s 500 is down 5.1% and the Nasdaq has declined 14.1% during 2001, according to the Bear Stearns REIT Monitor that was published on June 1.

For the week ending May 30, net inflows into mutual funds dedicated to real estate amounted to $17.6 million, although total assets dipped by $37 million to $10.8 billion in trading. The 30-day average trading volume for the sector moved down 1.1% from the week before to 17 million shares.