NEW YORK, March 19 (Reuters) - Although U.S. stocks have rallied from 12-year lows for six of the last seven sessions, data suggests investor sentiment may still have further to fall before the end of the crisis.

Outright bears accounted for 44 percent of the market in the second week of March, shortly after stock indexes hit fresh multi-year lows, according to data from Investors Intelligence.

That compares to a ratio of nearly 50 percent bears the week after stocks first hit 12-year lows in the current crisis on Nov. 21 last year.

And since the crisis began, the proportion of outright bears peaked at 54 percent two days after the largest U.S. bankruptcy filing in history -- the collapse of investment bank Lehman Brothers on Sept. 15.

Investors Intelligence, which has been collecting data from investor news letters for its Sentiment Index since 1963, says that historically, sustained changes in market direction have been accompanied by an extreme of sentiment in the opposite direction. That means stocks may have further to fall.

“Our view is that we are still in a bear market,” says Todd Salamone, vice president of research at Schaeffer’s Investment Research. “We have got to have an extreme negative to hit bottom.”

“We took out November lows but did not pass November sentiment levels, which is a cause for concern,” he said in an interview this week.

The S&P 500 index .SPX hit a 12-year low in late November, and plumbed fresh 12-year lows in early March.

The S&P has rallied 10 percent in the last seven days while the blue chip Dow industrials .DJI climbed 8 percent.

In addition Salamone says that the VIX volatility index .VIX ,known as Wall Street's fear gauge, has remained below levels seen last November, albeit partly because the latest slide in stocks has been more orderly.

“We would like to see the technical background improve or sentiment indicators that we track hit new lows -- until we get that we have to be skeptical about new rallies,” says Salamone. (Editing by Leslie Adler)