Does it make sense to only invest in gold this Diwali?

Summary: This Diwali, many Indians will buy gold: some for tradition and others for security. But what if the gold you buy isn’t the one that grows your wealth the most? Could equities, patiently held, have made you richer than the glittering metal in your hands? Find out in our analysis below. Thinking of buying gold this Diwali? You’re not alone. For generations, Indians have turned to gold as a symbol of prosperity and security—a ritual as timeless as the metal itself. And when prices soar as they have recently, the incentive to buy the yellow metal or invest in it only becomes stronger. But this is when it’s important to pause and ask: how has gold really done compared with equities when it comes to making investors richer? To find out, we looked beyond point-to-point returns and instead compared the five-year daily rolling returns of gold and the Nifty 500 between October 6, 2020 and October 6, 2025. This approach, which captures every possible five-year holding period within the last decade (2015–2025), shows how consistently each asset delivers over time and what investors would have earned had they invested at any point

This article was originally published on October 18, 2025.