Comment

Dalal Street extended its rebound last week as banking and IT sectors were the recipients of fresh liquidity, particularly from foreign institutions. Against a continued weakness in the US dollar, the Sensex rose 4% to 16848 while the Nifty finished Friday at 4998.

The size of the gains was somewhat surprising as I had been more cautious on the midweek alignment of Mercury with Uranus and Ketu. It is interesting to note, however, that the market rose with the approach of Mercury into this pattern and then fell Thursday as the alignment began to separate and Mercury entered Scorpio.

This underlined the crucial triggering role of faster moving planets in releasing the energy contained in slow moving aspects. The early week dynamics also featured an alternating pattern as Monday’s big gain came on the energetic Moon-Mars conjunction in Cancer but Tuesday’s profit-taking occurred once the Moon left Cancer and entered Leo. As expected, Friday’s gains arrived as the Moon again changed signs and entered the calmer environs of Virgo.

The commitment of the bulls will be again tested this week as two aspects involving malefic planets will be front and centre. On Monday and Tuesday, Mercury will come under the full aspect of pessimistic Saturn so there may be less enthusiasm for equities, particularly those represented by Mercury such as IT, transport, and communications.

Tuesday may be the more negative day as the Moon will conjoin Mercury in Scorpio during the afternoon. This aspect will also be significant because it will be another opportunity for the difficult energy of the Saturn-Pluto square aspect to be expressed through a third triggering planet. So far, the Saturn-Pluto square has been a non-event in the market, although it is still early days since it will be within range for another four months in its first phase.

By the end of the week, Venus will come under the often irascible influence of Mars. Mars is doubly unpredictable here since it is debilitated in Cancer, but Venus may be able to hold her own fairly well since she is exalted in Libra.

Perhaps we will see an up day on Wednesday as the Moon forms a parivartana yoga with Mars, with more doubtful sentiment on Thursday and perhaps even Friday as the Moon enters Sagittarius.

Even with the likelihood of some kind of decline this week, the market has been quite resilient in the face of some tense planetary formations. The promise of more clearly positive energy from the approaching Jupiter-Neptune aspect in early December would therefore suggest that prices should remain strongfor at least a few more weeks. But all bets are off with the Marsretrograde cycle which begins on 19 December and runs into early March. While Mercury undergoes its retrograde cycles every three months, the Mars retrograde cycle is rarer and more powerful. Mars moves backwards through the sky every two years and when it is aspected by a malefic planet it can initiate sizable declines.

With reports of rising inventories in the US, crude oil slipped 1% on the week to close near $77 on the continuous futures contract. I thought we might see more of a sell-off on the Mercury-Ketu aspect midweek but as it happened the large decline manifested after the aspect was exact on Thursday. Crude may continue to come under pressure this week since its significator, Saturn, will be highlighted by the aspect with Mercury.

As the US dollar continued to struggle on government deficit and inflation worries, gold climbed another 2% to close at $1119. This outcome was not entirely unexpected given the strength of the Sun and Venus in Libra, albeit with a dose of Saturn. As the Sun has now entered Scorpio, a sign ruled by malefic Mars, gold may be much more prone to declines this week.

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