New Delhi, Oct. 12 -- If your portfolio is in the red over the last 1 year, you may be missing out on returns from other asset classes. A portfolio concentrated in Indian equities or Indian mutual funds would have faced a different outcome from one spread across US equities, gold, real estate, and debt.

Investors need to look beyond a single market or asset class to understand how returns vary across investment horizons. Here is how 5 asset classes have performed over the last 1 year and across longer periods.

In the last 1 year, the Nifty 50 TRI declined 7.1%, while US equities returned 25%, gold gained 18%, real estate returned 8.5%, and debt delivered 5%.

For example, Rs.1 lakh invested in a Nifty 50 index fund tracking the index wo...