Best performing assets of last one week

After witnessing one of the most turmoil weeks of trade in more than a decade, normalcy seems to be returning, if Monday's morning trade is any indication. The stock market sell-off, which was triggered by Coronavirus concern, rapidly spread and took more than 50 countries in its grip and around 3,000 deaths globally.  The sell-off was so intense that S&P 500′s, bellwether equity index of US equity market, dropped the quickest 10 per cent from an all-time high in the index's history, according to Deutsche Bank.

Indian market too saw its equity indices having a free fall. BSE Sensex dropped by more than seven per cent last week while, most of the fall came on February 28, 2020 (Friday). There was not a single category of equity-dedicated mutual funds that was pared from such carnage. All categories saw a negative return in the last one month ending February 28, 2020. It’s interesting that small-cap dedicated funds have fallen in the list of equity-dedicated funds. The worst fall was witnessed in the 'international' category of funds.

There are, however, few categories of funds that have generated a positive return in the same period. Gold remains the best performing asset class as mutual funds dedicated to 'gold' generated a return of 2.1 per cent in the last one week ending February 28, 2020.

Other major gainers are debt category of funds. All the funds from this category have generated positive returns in the same period.

This shows the importance of asset allocation in one's portfolio. Although in the short-run, it may give you sub-par returns, however, in the long-run, they have the power of generating better risk-adjusted returns.