GBP/JPY Price Analysis: Bears flex muscles around 162.00 as BoJ looms

• GBP/JPY keeps the previous day’s losses around two-week low, depressed of late.
• Monthly bearish channel, sustained trading below previous support line signals further downside.
• 200-SMA appears the key challenge to bears amid sluggish RSI.

GBP/JPY holds lower ground at the intraday bottom surrounding 162.00 as pair traders await the all-important Bank of Japan (BoJ) monetary policy meeting announcements during early Friday.

In doing so, the cross-currency pair remains inside a downward-sloping trend channel from March 01 while keeping the early week’s downside break of the five-week-old support-turned-resistance line.

It’s worth noting that an absence of oversold RSI and the quote’s sustained trading below the 50-bar Simple Moving Average (SMA) adds strength to the bearish bias.

That said, the stated channel’s bottom line, around 161.65 by the press time, appears to put a floor under the GBP/JPY prices. Following that, the 200-SMA level, near 161.20 by the press time, acts as the last defense of the buyers.

In a case where GBP/JPY remains bearish past 161.20, the sellers may aim for the mid-February swing low surrounding 160.50 and the 160.00 round figure.

Alternatively, recovery moves can target the 163.00 round figure but may have a tough time crossing the 163.25-30 resistance confluence, encompassing the aforementioned channel’s top line and the 50-SMA.

Even if the quote rallies past 163.30, the previous support line from early February, near 163.50, could challenge the run-up before directing the GBP/JPY bulls towards the previous monthly peak surrounding 166.00.

GBP/JPY: Four-hour chart

Trend: Further downside expected