Mumbai, Sep 17 (IANS) A benchmark index of Indian equities markets was ruling 55 points up Monday in afternoon trade after paring early gains. Realty, capital goods and banking stocks were the main gainers.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 18,619.90 points, was trading at 18,519.52 points, 55.25 points or 0.30 percent up from its previous day's close at 18,464.27 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 18,715.03 and a low of 18,480.54 points in intra-day trade. The BSE midcap index was up 37.91 points while the smallcap index was 48.21 points high.

The wider 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange was also ruling 0.35 percent up at 5,597.40 points.

The benchmarks have pared most of the intra-day gains on profit booking after the Reserve Bank of India kept interest rates unchanged.

On the sectoral front, the BSE realty index was up 84.38 points while capital goods was up 295.73 points and banking index was up 312.39 points.

ICICI Bank was the biggest Sensex gainer and was trading 4.68 percent high at Rs.1,053.40.

Other major gainers were Jindal Steel, up 4.11 percent at Rs.387.55; Larsen and Toubro, up 3.70 percent at Rs.1,542; Tata Motors, up 3.66 percent at Rs.280.20; SBI, up 3.33 percent at Rs.2,036.15; and BHEL, up 2.76 percent at Rs.210.25.

The major Sensex losers were ITC, down 4.40 percent at Rs.256.30; Dr Reddy's Lab, down 3.63 percent at Rs.1,682.55; TCS, down 3.33 percent at Rs.1,365; Infosys, down 2.20 percent at Rs.2,575; and Wipro, down 2.04 percent at Rs.382.10.

Among other Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei was up 1.83 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng was trading 0.16 percent higher. Shanghai's composite index was down 2.14 percent.

The European markets opened lower. France's CAC was down 0.41 percent, while Germany's DAX was fell 0.13 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 was trading 0.19 percent lower.