The performances of the equal-weighted index versus the market-value weighted gauge reversed in the two most recent bull markets.

While the S&P 500 Equal Weighted Index rose 157 percent from 2002 through 2007, the full index advanced 102 percent. The Russell 2000 Index, whose average stock is worth $837 million, climbed 159 percent during the same period. The gain by the gauge of smaller U.S. companies has exceeded the S&P 500’s advance by 47 percentage points in the current bull market.

Monster Beverage Corp., the energy-drink maker with a market cap of $8.4 billion, jumped 13,176 percent from 2002 to 2007 for the biggest gain in the S&P 500. Tesoro Corp., an oil refinery, had a 7,661 percent advance.

Apple Losses

U.S. equities rebounded even as the world’s most valuable company plunged. Apple, the biggest company in the S&P 500, has tumbled 36 percent since September when the stock reached its record price of $702.10. While Apple has surged 444 percent since the 2009 market bottom, the company is the seventh worst- performing stock in the S&P 500 this year.

“When the largest stock in the index goes parabolic to the upside, that tends to make the overall S&P 500 look very attractive,” Alan Gayle, senior strategist at RidgeWorth Capital Management, said by phone. The Richmond, Virginia-based firm oversees about $48 billion. “Now that Apple has come back to earth, that allows us to see that the broader market in fact has been recovering nicely.”

Dow Transportation

The S&P 500 has been slower in surpassing its record than other American equity gauges in the bull market since 2009. The Russell 2000 topped its all-time high in April 2011, as did the Dow Jones Transportation Average. The S&P Midcap 400 Index exceeded its previous record on January 2011, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average did it on March 5. Both the Nasdaq Composite Index and the Nasdaq 100 Stock Index are trading below the peaks they reached in March 2000.

The S&P 500 came within two points of its all-time high on March 14, four trading days after the four-year anniversary of the current bull market in U.S. stocks. If history is any guide, the benchmark U.S. equity gauge may continue its advance for the next 2 1/2 years after surpassing its record.

Since 1945, the S&P 500 has climbed for 30 additional months after exceeding a previous record, according to a team led by Deutsche Bank AG’s David Bianco, the New York-based chief U.S. equity strategist. The average gain during the period was 59 percent, or 18 percent annualized, Bianco wrote in a March 8 note. Only three bull markets have lasted less than a year after exceeding all-time highs, his team said: 1972, 1980 and 2007.