KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips fell in early trade on April 29, in line with the weaker Asian markets following the swine flu virus outbreak, pushing the 100-stock KL Composite Index below the 960 level.

There was some selling of key heavyweights including Sime Darby, Tenaga and Public Bank but the trading volume was not very heavy.

At 9.22am, the KLCI was down 11.87 points to 953.83. Turnover was 101.11 million shares valued at RM71.66 million.

Sime Darby lost 20 sen to RM6.25, Public Bank, Tenaga and Bursa 15 sen each to RM8.30, RM7 and RM5.70 while Public Bank foreign and IJM gave up 10 sen each to RM8.30 and RM4.62.

MMC Corp and AMMB lost eight sen each to RM1.66 and RM2.91.

OSK Investment Research said technically,  the KLCI was now vulnerable to further correction to the downside.

In a research note, it said the bulls have been counting on the 200-day MAV line strong support. Technically, the market does not need to correct further from the current level as the daily RSI has retraced from overbought territory at its close at the 63.4 point-level yesterday.

“A further pullback will not only seriously dampen market sentiment but could also violate the short-term uptrend,” it added.

OSK Research said there has been aggressive selling in the market over the last two trading days but the two down days have not altered the KLCI’s bullish technical landscape.

“Mathematically, the KLCI has thus far retraced some 20% of the 160-point massive gain since the low recorded in March 2009. The correction is still healthy at the juncture, although it is beginning to make the investors feel uncomfortable,” it added.