By: Billy Fisher

Contributor, Stock Traders Daily

(La Jolla, CA) As major equity indexes have continued to trend higher over the past week, there have been several sectors that have stood out. Exchange traded funds focused on these sectors have moved up the charts accordingly. Of the 850 ETFs tracked by MSN Money, here are 4 of the top gainers over the course of the past week.

Warning: Recent strong Increases may reverse.  Pay very close attention to the reports for each of these companies.  They include integrated risk controls.

With a 19.8% return in just the past week alone, the Ultra Real Estate ProShares Fund (NYSE: URE) has been among the best performers during this time period. Designed to return investors twice the daily performance of the Dow Jones U.S. Real Estate Index, URE is heavily concentrated in commercial REITs.

This ETF has performed surprisingly well despite the fact that commercial property sales are forecasted this year to be at their lowest level since the savings and loan crisis in the early 1990s. Based on the trailing twelve months, the fund has a dividend yield of 10.7%. 

Another unlikely high-flyer in recent days has been the United States Natural Gas Fund (NYSE: UNG). Designed to track the price movements of natural gas futures, this ETF has surged 13.7% in the past week. UNG got a boost last week when the Energy Department reported that natural gas inventories had experienced a smaller-than-expected increase.

It will be interesting to see if natural gas can continue this impressive run. UNG has seen a great deal of speculation recently and it faced a surge in short interest as the month of August came to a close.

Seeing Green

The broad based rebound in commodity prices has benefitted the Ultra Basic Materials ProShares Fund (NYSE: UYM) which has risen 13.1% over the course of the past week. This ETF has been helped by inflationary concerns which launched the price of gold over $1,000 an ounce last week.

Clean energy has also been making waves as a coalition of Western companies said last week that in the future it can envision a $500 billion to $1 trillion market annually for clean technology in China. The Claymore/MAC Global Solar Energy Fund (NYSE: TAN) has risen 11.1% during the past week.

The fund’s top holding, First Solar (Nasdaq: FSLR) has been trending downwards since breaking above $200 per share in the spring. The stock was downgraded by Soleil before the market open yesterday, but has since experienced a strong rebound in its share price.

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