KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips eased in early trade  on Thursday, Feb 11, in the absence of strong external leads but sentiment was seen to be steady, underpinned by positive corporate earnings news.

At 9.20am, the FBM KLCI fell 0.68 of a point to 1,245.49. Turnover was 38.86 million shares done valued at RM23.68 million. There were 64 gainers, 70 losers and 96 stocks unchanged.

MAS' rights entitlements fell on its first trading day. It was down 24.5 sen to 19.5 sen with 7.46 million units done. MAS fell 11 sen to RM1.93 with 90,100 shares done.

Berjaya Media lost 13.5 sen to 97.5 sen while CIMB gave up eight sen to RM12.28 in thin trade.

Gadang shed 3.5 sen to 98.5 sen after it announced plans to raise a minimum of RM25 million via a proposed renounceable two-call rights issue of up to 78.68 million new shares at an indicative issue price of RM1 per share on the basis of two rights shares for every three existing shares.

OSK Research said almost everyone would have expected shares to rebound yesterday following the DJIA's rebound of 150 pts on Tuesday.

However, it did not expect the rebound to be that strong with such an aggressive
upside momentum. Obviously, there were still many investors / traders betting on a potential bottom yesterday.

The fact that the 50-day MAV line which had previously supported the massive rally started since March last year has been violated is undeniable. The 100-day MAV line has also been decisively taken out last week and this breakdown is basically a confirmation of the violation of the 50-day MAV line.

OSK Research cautioned that when such breakdowns occurred, technically, it normally signals a major shift of trend.

Wednesday's rebound came off from no specific support. Judging on the momentum of the rebound, it did feel like the market could be bottoming out, it added.

"However, yesterday's rebound was obviously a rebound within a downtrend. We would not be surprise that all the gains made yesterday could be evaporating soon should the market continues to extend its downtrend. As such, our firmly bearish bias view towards the near-term market remains the same," it said.

From the current level, an immediate support lies at the 1,233-level, followed by the 1,200-level. To the upside, there is still an immediate resistance seen at the 100-day MAV line followed by the 50-day MAV line, which now lies at the 1,275-level.