Venus-Pluto may improve sentiment by midweek

A nervous mood pervaded Dalal Street last week as inflation worries and the spectre of more rate hikes continued to haunt the market.

Despite a valiant rally attempt midweek, the Sensex lost about 2% to close at 18008 while the Nifty finished at 5395.

While I was somewhat uncertain where the market was headed in the short term, this negative outcome was not surprising given the conjunction of malefics Sun and Mars on Friday and the approach of the aspect with bearish Saturn.

I had expected some midweek upside last week on the favourable alignment of Mercury and Venus and indeed the market did rally on Wednesday and Thursday.

Admittedly, I was a day late in this prediction, although Friday’s major decline did coincide closely with the exact Sun-Mars combination.

Both of these fiery planets are considered negative influences on their own and when they align in the sky, they raise the probability of a declining market.
Since both the Sun and Mars are fast moving planets they can only influence the market for a day or two. To gain an understanding of the longer term trends, it is more important to understand the condition of the slower moving planets like Jupiter, Saturn, Rahu and Ketu.

As noted last week, Saturn’s reversal in direction after its retrograde station on the 26th did not spark a reversal rally because it is now approaching its opposition aspect with bullish Jupiter. This is usually a bearish influence and has the power to override other potentially bullish patterns we might see. So the stage is set for these two planetary giants to fight it out over the next few weeks ahead of their exact aspect on March 29.

While Jupiter is a bullish influence and could serve to offset the gloom of Saturn, the added burden for the market is that Uranus will form a square aspect with Rahu in early March. Both Uranus and Rahu are eccentric and unpredictable planets and their combination here increases the possibility of sudden moves and shocking turns of events.  These planetary influences look difficult and seem likely to take stocks down further, perhaps significantly so.

This week begins with the completion of the Sun-Mars aspect to Saturn on Monday.   This is a very negative influence but some of its negativity may be offset by the simultaneous Venus-Jupiter aspect. Sentiment seems likely to improve by midweek as charming Venus approaches its conjunction with pecuniary Pluto.

This may well spur some serious buying for two or three days as investors shop for bargains. The picture gets somewhat cloudy again by Friday, however, as ill-tempered Mars forms a minor aspect with Pluto.

As the chaos in Egypt continues, crude oil saw strength at midweek but lost most of the gains by Friday’s close, finishing the week below $90. This outcome corresponded with my expectations as the midweek period looked quite positive while Friday was more clearly bearish on the Sun-Mars conjunction. This week begins with the Moon conjunct Jupiter in Pisces so that may favour the bulls. The midweek Venus-Pluto aspect also would appear to increase the likelihood of higher prices. The late-week period looks more difficult, however, as the Sun prepares to enter the sign of Aquarius.

Gold experienced a modest midweek rise on the ongoing crisis in Egypt and this was largely in keeping with expectations of the bullish Mercury-Venus aspect. This week is likely to see more upside for gold, although Monday looks more bearish in the immediate aftermath of the Sun-Mars conjunction.

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