REITs Take a Breather After Weeks of New Highs

NEW YORK CITY-The Morgan Stanley REIT Index (RMS) rose 0.3% on Friday, up from 399.45 the day before when it clocked a gain of 0.3% over the prior seven days. The broader indexes fell on Friday. So far this year, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 2.6%, the Standard & Poor’s 500 has lost 8% and the Nasdaq has declined 16.4%, according to the weekly Bear Stearns REIT Monitor. The 52-week high and the all-time high of the RMS is $404.98; its 52-week low is 327.50.

For the week ending August 1, $31 million moved out of mutual funds that invest in real estate, and saw their total assets fall to $11.7 billion. The 30-day average trading volume for these funds slipped 7.7% from 15.9 million shares to 14.6 million shares.