The beleaguered Australian REIT sector staged a share market recovery today, rising 5%, as investors shrugged off recent bad news and a spate of capital raisings.

Brokers said the sector rallied hard over the last 90 minutes of trade on broader market futures-related buying.

Anticipation of more interest rate cuts and a belief the trusts have been oversold in recent weeks, were the triggers for the buying, which led the trusts to outperform the overall market for the first time in 2009.

The Age