* Real estate stocks gain
* Gold stocks pull down metals index
* NZ stocks fall about 1%
By Aby Jose Koilparambil
Aug 23 (Reuters) - Australian shares are set to post theirfirst weekly gain in four on Friday, as strength in heavyweightfinancial stocks and significant gains in real estate firmspushed the benchmark higher.
The S&P/ASX 200 index rose 0.3% to 6,522.70 by 0214GMT, adding to Thursday's 0.3% gain. The benchmark is poised togain about 1.8% for the week.
Markets have failed to accelerate in recent times due tofears of an impending global recession and the festeringSino-U.S. trade spat.
However, those worries largely took a back seat in Australiathis week, thanks to a recovery in investor sentiment overstimulus measures in China and strong corporate earnings athome.
Most property stocks gained with the sector indextacking on more than 2%.
Goodman Group advanced about 6% to be among the toppercentage gainers on the benchmark after the firm reported amore than a 48% jump in annual profit.
Underpinning positive sentiment in the real estate sector,Dexus, Charter Hall Group and Mirvac Groupgained as much as between 1.5% and 2.3%.
"The softening of interest rates in Australia has been thefocus in the results commentary of most of the property groups,"said James McGlew, executive director of stock broking atArgonaut.
McGlew added that the residential market is now receiving alot of attention from the government, which wants to stimulatenew growth in the segment.
Heavyweight Financials also gained in volatile earlytrade, rising as much as 0.4%, with the top three lenders of the"Big Four" gaining between 0.3% and 0.5%.
The overall gains, however, were capped by mining sectordeclines, with gold stocks off for a sixth straight session.
Gold explorer Gold Road Resources slumped as muchas 22.5%, its most in more than nine years, after its unit soldstake at a discounted price.
Gold Road was also the top percentage loser in the Metalsand Mining index, down 0.4%.
Major gold firms Newcrest Mining and EvolutionMining both dropped 0.4% and 0.8%, respectively.
Miner South32 Ltd extended losses, slipping morethan 5%. The company on Thursday reported a 25% drop in annualunderlying profit.
The energy sector, which has largely propelled thebenchmark's weekly gains, inched lower on the day.
New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index fell about1% to 10,638.87, with dairy firm a2 Milk Co leading thelosses with an about 5% decline.(Reporting by Aby Jose Koilparambil in Bengaluru; Editing bySam Holmes)