Saturn afflicts BSE badly; planet casts long shadow otherwise too

The downtrend remained in place for stocks last week as concerns over growth prospects weighed on investors.

After trading as low as 5200 on Thursday, the Nifty closed lower by more than 1% at 5310, while the Sensex finished the week at 17,728.

This bearish outcome was somewhat unexpected, as I thought we might see more short-term upside on the midweek Venus-Pluto conjunction. Instead, the market remained captive to very difficult medium-term influences as Saturn continued to dominate the proceedings.  

Friday’s gain only very roughly correlated to the Venus-Pluto conjunction as stocks finally rose after Venus had moved more than one degree past Pluto.

With Saturn’s retrograde cycle now fully underway, it is moving towards its opposition aspect with Jupiter on March 29. This is a key medium-term bearish influence on the market that will tend to act as a drag on sentiment for the next several weeks.

Of course, this is a general transit influence that is in effect for all stock markets around the world.  And yet as we know, Indian stocks have fared much worse than most other global equities in 2011.

The main reason for this nasty bear market is that the horoscope of BSE has come under heavy affliction by Saturn. When the BSE was founded on July 9, 1875, and securities began to be traded for the first time in India, Sun was in the sign of Gemini.

Saturn is currently transiting the sign of Virgo, and therefore now forms an antithetical square aspect of 270 degrees to Gemini and the Sun in the BSE’s horoscope.

The fact that Saturn is slowly moving backwards in the sky serves to make the affliction that much worse. 

Saturn is again in focus this week as we will see two fast moving aspects involving Mercury and Venus.  On Monday the 14th, Mercury and Saturn will align in a very close 120 degree aspect.

This may correlate with disappointing economic news that could produce more selling.  While this particular aspect is not always bearish, Saturn appears to be taking no prisoners these days, so there may be no love lost on Valentine’s Day.

By midweek, there will be a Sun-Neptune conjunction in Aquarius that could boost the mood as government policy may be seen as favourable to investment opportunities.

The end of the week will feature a square aspect between Venus and Saturn that may correlate with an absence of confidence and reduced optimism.

With the peaceful resolution to the crisis in Egypt, crude lost ground last week closing under $86.  As expected, the late-week movement of the Sun towards Aquarius correlated with a loss of value. 

This week’s strong Saturn influence seems likely to put more pressure on prices.  While there could be some midweek upside near the Sun-Neptune conjunction, both the Mercury and Venus aspects with Saturn at the beginning and end of the week look troublesome.

With tensions easing in the Middle East, gold enjoyed only modest gains last week closing above $1,350.  This was broadly in keeping with expectations, although the gains were somewhat less than I thought they might be. 

While Saturn’s early and late week influence here may be somewhat unkind to gold, the midweek Sun-Neptune conjunction does offer the likelihood the more upside potential.

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