Stock market investors will remember the third quarter of 2009 as a rare period at the tail end of this decade when it was difficult not to make money — or at least very hard to lose it.

The anticipation of a sharp cyclical recovery has pushed the FTSE all-share index up a hefty 20 per cent since the end of June. Cut another way, only four of Britain’s 100 leading shares have fallen over that period and only one — Severn Trent, the water utility, down 12 per cent — notched up a loss extending into double digits.

The reassurance for followers of the Tempus Ten, the notional portfolio of stocks intended to enrich readers of The Times, is that it has more than doubled in value from the half-year stage. Having been ahead 9.2 per cent in June, it has now gained 21.0 per cent since the start of the year. The disappointment, albeit modest, is that the portfolio’s outperformance against the wider stock market has rapidly narrowed. Its lead over the FTSE all-share, its benchmark, widened from 6.1 percentage points in March to 11.0 in June — but now has contracted to 2.9 percentage points. That gap would still be enough to satisfy a professional money manager.

More important, the Ten continues to fulfil all three of the aims under which it is annually assembled: to record a positive return in absolute terms; to exceed the return from holding cash on deposit paying Bank of England base rates (now virtually one and the same thing); and to outpace the progress of the FTSE all-share index.

There is symmetry, too. The portfolio neatly divides between five stocks that have outperformed the market and five that have trailed. However, the underlying pattern is the same: the leaders and laggards have broadly held their places. With the odd exception. Rank Group, the Ten’s most consciously contrarian pick, has begun to look less of a gamble: shares in the bingo and casino operator, down 6 per cent in June, are now up 22 per cent. July’s interim results conveyed a clear improvement in trading, with a better than expected showing by Rank’s regional casinos prompting upgrades to profit forecasts. Next month’s trading statement, due on October 8, should hopefully maintain that trend.

Babcock International is also coming in to its own. Growing confidence that the FTSE 250 engineering services group will be able to withstand budgetary pressures from the public sector has helped the shares up 22 per cent. Further, last week’s bolt-on acquisition of UKAEA, formerly part of the Atomic Energy Authority, should strengthen its hand in winning nuclear decommissioning work. The company will update the market on its plans for its nuclear and marine businesses next week.

Balfour Beatty has been buying, too, paying $626 million (£391 million) last week for Parsons Brinckerhoff, the American consulting engineer. The deal, the latest in a string of US acquisitions, should give the construction group greater exposure to President Obama’s stimulus spending, especially in transport. Sadly, the shares, up a mere 0.3 per cent, have failed to respond.

The portfolio’s twin plays on a recovery in commodity prices have lost none of their allure. BHP Billiton, the miner, has extended its gain to 29 per cent, from 6 per cent at the half-year stage. A strong balance sheet means that it continues to be linked to merger activity, whether a takeover of a Canadian potash producer or injecting its diamond interests into a joint venture with Rio Tinto.

Salamander Energy, the mid-cap oil and gas explorer, has done even better. It is up 79.8 per cent. There have been rumours of stakebuilding by an Indonesian rival, but the greater attraction lies in the potential of its drilling programme — in Thailand this year and Indonesia, Laos and Vietnam in 2010.

And the losers? BAE Systems, down 9 per cent, has been hit by the loss of a $3.7 billion US armoured vehicles contract, calling into doubt the rationale of its $4.5 billion purchase of Armor Holdings two years ago. Defence cuts also weigh on sentiment, despite the strong profits that will be delivered soon by some of its more mature programmes, such as Nimrod and the Type 45 destroyer.

Brit Insurance, the Lloyd’s of London underwriter, has fallen by 10.2 per cent, but 4.5 per cent if its 15p-a-share of dividend payments this year are included. A quiet hurricane season might provide a fillip, or, failing that, a strong performance from its investments, which are heavily skewed towards equities and corporate bonds.

But it is the portfolio’s two smallest constituents that continue to occupy the top and bottom slots of the Ten — and maintain the high-risk reputation of the market’s minnows. Advanced Computer Software, the healthcare IT consolidator, up 97 per cent, is performing to plan. But Futura Medical, down 12.4 per cent, whose lead product treats erectile dysfunction, remains a case of deferred gratification. Technical difficulties, partly because of the resiting of a condom factory by SSL International, its partner, means that the product launch that underpinned its inclusion will not take place until 2010 — which, sadly, for the purpose of this year’s portfolio, will come too late.

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