Many of the pension funds struggling with this year’s steep stock market losses are finding a silver lining in the sharply rising value of their commodities investments. New York is not so lucky.

Due to a combination of strategic choices and legal restrictions, New York’s city and state pension funds have not directly invested in any commodities, such as oil or gold, which have seen their values skyrocket. The pension funds have sat on the sidelines as other states poured money into commodities and watched those investments increase an average of 71% in value over the last year, according to Standard & Poor’s.

The commodities market was largely foreign territory for pension funds only a few years ago. Their overall allocation to commodities is still low — about 2% to 5% on average — but the huge investment return has buffered poor performance in other areas, a managing director of the consulting firm Wilshire Associates, Maggie Ralbovsky, said.

“The commodities allocation is a small allocation, but it offsets this big negative contribution from equity,” she said. “It adds a lot of value to pensions.”

That kind of break would come in handy for New York City’s pension system, which lost nearly $5 billion in the nine months ended March 31, the most recent data available. Data is not yet available for the state’s pension system, but it is not likely to post significant gains despite an impressive long-term record, officials familiar with its performance said.

While no investment scheme is risk-free, New York is lacking a crutch that has proved valuable for many of its peer funds, some officials said.

“If you’ve not been in, you’ve missed the boat,” a public pension consultant for Northern Trust Co., Steven Pines, said. “We’re certainly advising clients to consider commodities if they’re not currently in them.”

New York’s decision not to invest in commodities has been the result of both strategy and statutory restrictions, according to a spokesman for the state comptroller’s office, Jim Fuchs. The pension funds are allowed to put only 25% of their assets in “alternative investments,” including categories such as real estate, hedge funds, and commodities. Within that limitation, the state has chosen to focus on other alternative investment strategies.

“There’s a certain conservatism built into our investment strategy as a result of this legal system,” Mr. Fuchs said, noting that commodities such as food products can be fairly volatile. “We use that allocation to get into these other asset classes that have proven to be quite successful for our fund in the past.”

Mr. Fuchs declined to speculate about how the state’s investments would change if the limit were increased, but some others said the explosive growth in commodities in recent years should provide incentive for lawmakers to ease restrictions.

California’s pension system, for example, has full authority to invest as it chooses, a fund spokesman, Clark McKinley, said. “It enhances our flexibility with the fund,” he explained. “Our system is optimal for the mandate that we have under law to maximize investment returns.” The state invests about 1.4% of its assets in commodities, Mr. McKinley added, noting that the small allocation, which has seen a return of 68%, has helped offset stock market losses.

New York’s limits on alternative investments was increased to 25% from 15% in 2005, and some experts said they hope it will be reviewed again. The issue of state-level investment limits may become a moot point, however, if the federal government bans commodities trades for pension funds, a measure that is under consideration in Congress. Some lawmakers and investment officials claim that rampant commodities investment has inflated the price of oil and food, leading to debate over whether they are a good choice for long-term investors such as pension funds.

“The fact that New York State has not made a sizeable investment in that arena doesn’t surprise me,” a director of SEI Investment Manager Services, Albert Pierce, said.

“The inflow in commodities, a lot of it’s been driven by speculators, the momentum, the hoard investors.”