MUMBAI: Although the Indian markets started on a strong note in the morning, the news of political instability sent it crashing. The entertainment and media stocks, which had been on an upward journey for some days, took a battering with the markets today.

Stocks that lost major ground were Cinevistaas Communications, which was down 9.10 per cent, GV Films was down 9.07 per cent, Mukta Arts was 8.53 per cent down, whereas Adlabs Films was down 7.83 per cent. Other media and entertainment stocks that lost significant ground today were Pyramid Saimira, NDTV, Moser Baer, Pritish Nandy Communications, UTV Software and Zee Entertainment.

Even BAG Films, which had a phenomenal upside from the Rs 45 mark post the announcements of its new channels getting uplink and downlink permission from the I&B ministry recently, also could not go against the market sentiment. The stock was down 4.95 per cent to end the day at Rs 81.55.

Saregama India and Ashtavinayak Cine Vision were the only stocks in the entertainment and media space, which survived the crash today. While Saregama was up by 3.64 per cent at Rs 303, Ashtavinayak ended the day marginally up by 1.12 per cent.

On the other hand, the Sensex ended the day down 281.97 points to close at 17491.39, whereas the NIFTY was down 100.75 points to close at 5085.10.

With the political instability and markets just off its all time highs, it seems like a wait and watch game for everyone.