REITs lost ground in January as global macroeconomic concerns exerted downward pressure on the sector, but they still outperformed the broader equity market.
The total returns of the FTSE/NAREIT All REIT Index fell 3.5 percent in January, while the S&P 500 Index lost 5.0 percent.
“Even though REITs were clearly impacted by everything that was going on in the broader market, they outperformed on a relative basis,” said Jeff Langbaum, senior REIT analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.