Sun-Mercury aspect to make second half of this week positive

Stocks added to their recent gains as fresh FII inflows sought out relatively inexpensive Indian equities. The Sensex gained 3% last week closing at 19420 while the Nifty finished at 5826. This was a surprising result given the apparent bearish influences, especially the early week Mars-Ketu pattern. I had expected more selling in the first half of the week on this pairing of malefic planets, but it was Ketu’s intrinsic unpredictability that perhaps had a final say in the bullish outcome. The second half of the week unfolded largely as expected as the Moon-Venus conjunction appeared to fit well with extension of the rally into Thursday.

With the Jupiter-Saturn opposition now separating, its influence on the markets may be gradually waning. So far, its effects have been somewhat less bearish than expected.  While sentiment was fairly negative in the weeks ahead of the opposition, the rebound through March has actually recovered much of the losses from January and February.  However, most commentators are not predicting a return to the 2010 bull market any time soon as worries (Saturn) persist over inflation (Jupiter). In that sense, the rebound off the February low has not dislodged the fundamental belief in the negative impact of domestic inflation going forward. It is this kind of major obstacle to economic growth that will likely hamper the markets for the balance of the year. And it should be said that the stars continue to indicate a bearish bias over the medium term.

This week may lean more towards negative as we will see a possible triggering of the Jupiter-Saturn opposition by the Sun.

The Sun conjoins Jupiter on Wednesday and thus may release some of the bearish energy contained in the Jupiter-Saturn aspect. The negativity is more likely to manifest ahead of that conjunction as the Sun will oppose Saturn on Monday. This is a more purely bearish pairing that suggests pessimism and obstruction of goals. In addition, Mars will also conjoin powerful Uranus on Monday. This is a high energy combination that could serve to magnify any market moves early in the week.  The second half of the week could be somewhat more positive, however, as the Sun approaches its conjunction with Mercury. 

Crude oil edged above $107 last week as Middle East supply fears continued to push prices higher. As expected the early week saw some bearishness around the Mars-Ketu aspect but crude recovered strongly on Thursday’s Moon-Venus conjunction. This week looks more uncertain as the early week Mars-Uranus conjunction could unsettle the current bullish bias. Some upside seems likely near Wednesday’s Sun-Jupiter conjunction although it is unclear if it will extend into the end of the week.

Despite renewed worries over European debt, gold had a lacklustre last week finishing mostly unchanged around $1430. This middling outcome was not unexpected given the mixture of influences. I did suggest that Wednesday and Thursday were more likely to be positive on the Moon-Venus conjunction and indeed gold rose on both days after suffering declines in previous sessions.

Gold may weaken early this week on the Sun-Saturn aspect but some recovery seems likely near the mid-week Sun-Jupiter conjunction. The end of the week may see a return to further weakness as Venus forms a minor aspect with Saturn.

The writer is a neo-Vedic astrologer specialising in predictive astrology. He runs the website www.modernvedicastrology.com