Comment

Stocks extended their rally last week for a fourth straight week as foreign buyers offset inflationary concerns and the possibility of rising interest rates.

The Sensex moved higher by 1% closing at 17166 while
the Nifty closed at 5137. While the market lost most of its
upward momentum following the budget, I had expected
more downside here, especially early in the week on the Venus-Saturn aspect.

As predicted, Monday’s residual optimism pushed it moderately higher and the exact Venus-Saturn opposition did dampen enthusiasm although the decline was quite tepid.

Late-week trading had a bullish bias and this was not far off last week’s forecast for a mixed picture with the possibility of a rebound due to the ongoing strength of Sun and Mercury in the proximity of auspicious Jupiter.

Overall, last week was our first experience with some new negative Saturn energy and prices held up quite well. As I mentioned in last week’s column, the fast moving inner planets (Venus, Mercury and the Sun) are in the process of leaving the more bullish embrace of Jupiter and coming under the more bearish influence of pessimistic Saturn over the next week or two.

The fact that the market did not fall substantially in the early phase of this shift of planetary energy is perhaps a clue that any subsequent pullbacks will be modest in the current phase. However, it is still too early to be conclusive on this score since both the Sun and Mercury have yet to run the bearish Saturn gauntlet.

Mercury is the next planet to come under the influence of Saturn, which will occur on Thursday this week.

Before that, the dominant celestial feature will be a powerful triple conjunction of the Sun, Mercury and Uranus in the sign of Pisces.
Actually, the Sun and Mercury will first conjoin on
Sunday the 14th, and then the faster moving Mercury will come together with Uranus on Tuesday, while the Sun follows suit on Wednesday.

There is a substantial amount of energy connected with this three-planet conjunction so we should not be surprised to see some significant price moves and higher volatility.

Generally, these are positive energies so it seems reasonable to expect some early rally attempts ahead of these conjunctions. The complicating factor, however, is that the initial conjunction of the Sun and Mercury occurs on Sunday when the markets are closed so there is a chance that some of the positive energy will be lost in its aftermath.

The end result is perhaps a greater likelihood for losses as the week progresses. Mercury, the planet of trading, opposes bearish Saturn on Thursday so the time around that aspect warrants particularly close attention.

Sentiment seems likely to undergo a turn for the worse here as Jupiter’s influence recedes into the background and Saturn takes centrestage.

After trading higher earlier in the week, crude oil ultimately closed lower overall near $81. This was mostly in keeping with expectations, although the decline was quite modest. This week could send prices higher on the early Uranus influence but gains will likely be fleeting as Saturn moves back into the picture by Thursday.

Gold suffered the most from last week’s Venus-Saturn aspect as it retreated 3% to close near $1100 on the futures contract. This was very much in keeping with our bearish forecast. Some early-week rebound is possible as the Sun-Uranus conjunction should be kind to bullion.

Overall, however, Saturn is likely to exact a steep price on gold as the week progresses. As a possible mitigating factor here, we note that the Sun’s exact opposition to Saturn occurs on Sunday the 21st when markets are closed.

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