Mumbai, Aug 24 (IANS): Shedding early gains, a benchmark index of Indian equities markets was trading around 37 points lower in late afternoon trade Thursday after oil and gas, auto and realty stocks came under intense selling pressure.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 17,856.29 points, was ruling at 17,810.05 points, 0.21 percent or 36.81 points down from its previous day's close at 17,846.86 points.

At one time, it was trading around 100 points higher.

The Sensex touched a high of 17,972.54 points and a low of 17,792.87 points in intra-day trade.

The wider 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange was ruling 0.91 percent down at 5,402.30 points.

The BSE oil and gas index was down 138.07 points followed by the auto index, down 79.11 points and the realty index, down 10.74 points.

The main Sensex losers were RIL, down 2.26 percent at Rs.789.75; ONGC, down 1.83 percent at Rs.280.90; Tata Motors, down 1.41 percent at Rs.244.40; Mahindra and Mahindra, down 1.27 percent at Rs.773.85; and Larsen and Toubro, down 1.19 percent at Rs.1,439.45.

The major Sensex gainers were Wipro, up 2.82 percent at Rs.364.20; TCS, up 1.71 percent at Rs.1,314.10; Infosys, up 1.44 percent at Rs.2,464.50; Tata Steel, up 1.32 percent at Rs.397.80; and Hindustan Unilever, up 1.24 percent at Rs.517.90.

Among other Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei was up 0.51 percent while Shanghai's composite index was trading 0.25 percent higher. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 1.23 percent.