Pound May Extend Loss to 192.48 Yen on Charts, Citigroup Says

By Ron Harui

Aug. 14 (Bloomberg) -- The British pound may extend its decline to 192.48 yen after the currency dropped below so-called support at around 211.25 yen, technical analysts at Citigroup Global Markets Inc. said.

Support around the 211.25 yen level is the 55-day moving average and represents an ascending trend line that connects the lows in March, May, July and on Aug. 8, based on Citigroup's chart. Support is where buy orders may be clustered.

``The currency pair now sustains below the converged support that was around 211.25 and we continue to expect further losses in the short, medium and long-term,'' New York-based Tom Fitzpatrick and London-based Shyam Devani wrote in a research note yesterday. ``The next support levels to be tested are 199.72 and then the March low at 192.48.''

The pound fell to 204.22 yen as of 1:45 p.m. in Tokyo from 204.87 yen late in New York yesterday, when it reached 202.53 yen, the lowest since May 13. The pound has weakened 4.7 percent against the yen this month, the third-worst performance among the 16 most-active currencies.

Next support at the 199.72 yen level is the May 9 low and 192.48 yen is the March 17 low, according to Citigroup's chart.

In technical analysis, investors and analysts study charts of trading patterns and prices to forecast changes in a security, commodity, currency or index.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ron Harui in Singapore at rharui@bloomberg.net