Schaeffer's Market Leaders and Laggards Features Allegheny Energy, Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, Agile Software, MBNA Corp., and Whirlpool Corporation

Business Wire, April 27, 2005

CINCINNATI -- Among the stocks featured in the April 27 edition of Schaeffer's Market Leaders and Laggards are Allegheny Energy (NYSE:AYE), Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (NYSE:KMP), Agile Software (NASDAQ:AGIL), MBNA Corp. (NYSE:KRB), and Whirlpool Corporation (NYSE:WHR). Schaeffer's Market Leaders and Laggards screener is just one of the many features written everyday at http://www.SchaeffersResearch.com - the home of Bernie Schaeffer and Schaeffer's Investment Research. The information used to compile this commentary is derived from the Schaeffer's Equity Scorecard Filter. Below is a quick overview of some of the heavy hitters that are seeing some particularly high or low rankings. For a complete list of the stocks on our High/Low Schaeffer's Equity Scorecard Filter, sign up for an unlimited access free trial to Schaeffer's Gold. http://www.SchaeffersResearch.com/redirect.aspx?CODE=PRGLD2M&PAGE=1 .

Schaeffer's Market Leaders and Laggards for Tuesday, April 27, 2005:

Allegheny Energy - Ranking 8.0

Allegheny Energy (NYSE:AYE) has enjoyed steady price rises on the support of its weekly trendlines, interrupted only once, when it entered a consolidation phase from November last year until February 2005. But that is over now, and we've seen a healthy 30-percent gain since February 22. The stock fell dramatically from April to October 2002, when the company saw something like 89 percent of its value vanish. Perhaps the most significant is the 50-percent retracement level which lies, unsurprisingly, half way between the April 2002 peak and the October 2002 trough. If the stock manages a confident close above this threshold, we can reasonably expect further rises tomorrow. The sentiment data for AYE is encouraging. The Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) stands at 0.73, and investors have been more pessimistic than this only 29 percent of the time during the past year. Only six analysts rank the stock, and five of them see the shares as a "hold" or worse, so there is ample room for upgrades. What's more, almost 13 percent of the float is sold short, and the short-interest ratio is a massive 15.61 days to cover, another pessimistic sign. While pessimism towards a poorly performing stock is right and proper, pessimism toward a well-behaved stock like AYE makes it one to watch.

Click on the following link to see the Weekly Chart of AYE since April 2002 with 20-Week Moving Average: http://www.schaeffersresearch.com/wire?ID=13052 .

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners- Ranking 8.50

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (NYSE:KMP) has been in a solid uptrend lately, despite today's slight drop thanks to an announced $5-million settlement between SFPP (a subsidiary of KMP) and the Attorney General of the State of California. This caused KMP shares to drop from their near-term high of 49.13 to 47.50. While this kind of pullback may be disconcerting, the 47.50 level has assumed the role of support for the falling shares. What's more, KMP's 10-day moving average is rapidly ascending toward the 47.50 level. KMP has used this trendline's support to mark steady gains since the beginning of April. Look back to January 1997, since that time KMP has used the support of its 10-month and 20-month trendlines to rise from the 6.84 level to a new all-time high of 49.95 at the end of 2003. Throughout this eight-year span of support, KMP has logged eight monthly closes below both trendlines. Despite this technical outperformance, KMP's SOIR checks in at a hefty 2.18, higher than all those taken during the past 52 weeks. This pessimistic outlook is echoed in KMP's short interest, which increased by a sizeable 42 percent over the past month. This pessimistic piling results in a short-interest ratio of 8.23, more than enough fuel to fire a short-covering rally should bears need to cover their short bets. Finally, analysts are not jumping on the bandwagon as, according to Zacks eight of the 10 covering analysts rank KMP a "hold" or worse. Should this pessimistic gathering change its mind, watch for KMP to continue its run. The energy firm's pessimistic sentiment backdrop combines with its outstanding technical performance to result in a Equity Scorecard ranking of 8.5 out of 10.0.

Click on the following link to see the Monthly Chart of KMP since January 1997 with 10-Month and 20-month Moving Averages: http://www.schaeffersresearch.com/wire?ID=13052 .

Agile Software - Ranking 3.0

Agile would not be the way to describe Agile Software's (NASDAQ:AGIL) stock movement since the end of 2003. Looking at AGIL's weekly chart, note that the stock has consistently dropped, thanks to the resistance of its 10-week and 20-week moving averages. On the two recent occasions that AGIL has been able to peak its head above these trendlines, the nine level has acted as resistance and turned away the equity's advances. The most recent test of this resistance resulted in the shares falling back below their short-term trendlines on their trek toward a near-term low. For AGIL to move higher, it is going to have to overcome this resistance combined with the resistance of the seven level, where its 10-week moving average currently resides. Furthermore, both the 10-week and 10-day moving averages have recently completed bearish crosses of their respective 20-unit moving averages. These are technical precursors of a continued downtrend. AGIL is met with skepticism from the options community as well as the analyst community, this results in an Equity Scorecard ranking of 3.0 out of 10.0.