Australia shares set to track Wall Street higher, eyes on RBA chief's speech

    Feb 3 (Reuters) - Australian shares were likely to open
higher on Wednesday after big U.S. tech names pushed major Wall
Street indexes higher overnight, while domestic investors eye a
speech by Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Philip Lowe later
in the day.
    Lowe's speech in Canberra is likely to focus on the central
bank's policy settings for the year ahead after it held its cash
rate and announced an extension of its quantitative easing
program on Tuesday.              
    The local share price index futures          rose 0.9%, a
17.6-point discount to the underlying S&P/ASX 200 index        
close. The benchmark closed 1.5% higher on Tuesday.
    New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index         rose 0.8%
to 13,153.62 by 2116 GMT.
    
       

 (Reporting by Arpit Nayak in Bengaluru
Editing by Matthew Lewis)