It’s times like this that jog the memories of equity investors, reminding them the value of diversifying as risk-off sentiment roils U.S. markets.

Eleven years into the U.S. bull market, black swan events like a deathly viral outbreak that could dent the world’s largest economy have brought investors back on earth. At one point on Friday, the S&P 500 Index dropped as much as 1.3%. Yet the Canadian benchmark fell less than half that amount at its lowest point.

A flight to safe havens, the plunge in U.S. long-bond yields and real interest rates sinking further into negative territory have led to a surge in the shares of Canadian gold miners, utility companies and real estate income trusts. These sectors make up about a fifth the nation’s key equity gauge, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The nation’s mining stocks posted their best week this year, utility firms have risen for seven consecutive weeks -- their longest winning streak in five months -- and even the Canadian dollar has strengthened this week as the greenback weakened.

“It’s fair to say it’s just a good diversifier,” Greg Taylor, chief investment officer at Purpose Investments, said by phone. “There’s some thought to looking at the diversifier of the Canadian index that has more gold, that has more defensive sectors. It has probably a bit more of a dividend bias.”

A wave of geopolitical events and the coronavirus epidemic that has killed more than 2,200 people and infected more than 76,000 has led Canada’s benchmark to outperform the S&P 500 so far this year -- an event so unusual that it only happened twice in the last decade.

“When in a low interest-rate environment, you’ve got a lot of people looking for yield and when you want to try and find alternative sources of income --I think that’s more exposed in Canada than other areas, Taylor said, adding that gold “certainly helps a lot in times of risk-off.”