Comment

Stocks in Mumbai rose last week as investors welcomed several tax relief measures announced in Friday’s budget. After trading in a narrow range before Friday, the Sensex rallied almost 2% at the end of the week to close at 16,429 while the Nifty ended at 4922.

This bullish outcome was largely in keeping with expectations as I had expected a positive response to the budget on Friday’s Sun-Jupiter conjunction.

The early week period was not as weak as expected although we did see an afternoon sell-off after Monday’s strong open. As expected, the market did undergo a mild rebound into midweek although bullishness was muted ahead of the budget.

The budget itself was generally well received by investors as the Sun-Jupiter conjunction suggested a balanced and well-planned initiative.

While the government promised to pare back deficit levels to 5.5% of GDP, it nonetheless intended to increase borrowings to record levels for the next year. This fiscal generosity was predicated on the belief in greater economic expansion and was very much in line with the symbolism of Jupiter. While equities may have cheered this Jupiterian expression of confidence in the future, bond markets were less forgiving as yields rose on the expectation of fresh debt issuances.

After Monday’s holiday closing, this week may well see more optimism manifest in the afterglow of the Sun-Jupiter conjunction at least in the short term.

While conjunctions quickly lose their power once the planets move away, the early week period may receive a quick lift from the approach of the Venus-Uranus conjunction in the first degree of Pisces. The picture is made more complicated, however, by the simultaneous alignment of Mercury, Mars and Saturn on Tuesday and Wednesday. We should note that these are potentially offsetting energies so that if gains are made, they are likely to be short-lived.

The Moon transits Virgo on Tuesday and Wednesday so this may correlate more highly with risk taking and rally attempts. It is unlikely that both days will be positive, however, as any bullish energy may quickly dissipate. The latter part of the week looks somewhat less positive since Venus moves away from Uranus and towards an aspect with pessimistic Saturn.

So while some more upward movement is possible this week, March generally seems less amenable to gains due to the twin negative influence of Mars and Saturn. Mars represents quick action and anger while Saturn is a planet that symbolises structure and losses.

While both of these naturally malefic planets have a positive side, they tend to manifest their negative side more often, especially when they are simultaneously activated as we see here.

Crude oil was mostly unchanged this week, closing above $79 on the futures contract. I had expected a little more upside here on the Sun-Jupiter conjunction. Actually, we did see a nice gain in crude in Friday’s session on the day that Sun came closest to Jupiter, although the rise merely offset previous declines.

Crude may attempt another rally above $80 early this week on the Venus-Uranus conjunction. Profit-taking may be more likely towards the end of the week.

After trading in a fairly narrow range, gold was mostly unchanged last week, closing at $1116 on the futures contract. As expected, the Sun’s conjunction with Jupiter did produce some late week strength although this was modest, especially given the declines earlier in the week. This week may well see more gains early for bullion on the Venus-Uranus conjunction but they are unlikely to last long.

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