** European real estate companies shares rise in the morning trade, topping the underperforming STOXX 600 .STOXX index

** Analysts say investors retreat to defensive sectors, following U.S. tariffs announced on Wednesday

** Carlsquare analyst Bertil Nilsson expects the Trump tariffs to likely result in lower global GDP growth and a rising inflation, which should trigger interest rate cuts by central banks

** "If I were a fund manager, my gut instinct would be to move into more defensive sectors," Nilsson adds

** Erste Group analyst Lukasz Janczak echoes the view, saying that businesses which use high leverage should benefit from lower rates

** Janczak adds that being less vulnerable to economic shocks should enable the sector to perform relatively better

** The pan-European real estate companies sub-index .SX86P is up 2.6%

** Swedish real estate companies Balder BALDb.ST, Wallenstam WALLb.ST, Castellum CAST.ST, Wihlborgs WIHL.ST, Sagax SAGAa.ST are up between 4-5%, all among the top 10 performers on STOXX

** German companies Vonovia VNAn.DE, TAG Immobilien TEGG.DE , LEG Immobilien LEGn.DE, Aroundtown AT1.DE Deutsche Wohnen DWNG.DE are up 3.5%-5%, topping the German blue-chip and midcaps indexes .GDAXI, .MDAXI

(Reporting by Anna Chaberska, Tristan Veyet, Ozan Ergenay)

((Tristan.chabba@thomsonreuters.com))