Shares of real estate developers were trading lower on interest rate concerns as investors preferred to cut exposure to high-beta sectors,several dealers said. "The general industry sentiment is weak. Investors are concerned about profitability and are cutting down exposure to the real estate sector," said a chief dealer with a local brokerage. On Tuesday,HSBC downgraded two industry heavyweights,Unitech and DLF,saying it expected real estate companies to miss their FY11 volume guidance and issue conservative guidance for FY12. At 2.46 p.m.,the real estate index of the BSE was down 5.97 percent underperforming the benchmark index which was down nearly 2 percent. Shares of DLF,Unitech,Housing Development and Infrastructure and Indiabulls Real Estate were down 4-10 percent.