New Delhi, Oct. 4 -- If you are a new investor and have stayed invested in equities over the past two years, you may have little to show for it. The Nifty 50 is down about 13% over this period and is now 14.5% below its September 2024 peak. Over the past month alone, it has fallen 6.9%. These returns are as of 1 October 2026.

Your mutual fund statements show the same. Over the past month, large-cap funds lost 5.7% on average, mid-cap funds 6% and small-cap funds 3%. Over one and two-year periods, large-cap funds are down about 4% and 7% on average.

After the strong returns markets delivered in the years following the covid-19 pandemic, many investors have been waiting for that run to come back. Instead, two years of flat to negative ret...