Aug 18 (Reuters) - Australian shares were set to gain on Tuesday, following an overnight rally in U.S. peers, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq .IXIC surging to an all time high and the S&P 500 .SPX flirting with its intraday record level.
The local share price index futures YAPcm1 jumped 0.52%, a 24.4-point discount to the underlying S&P/ASX 200 index .AXJO close. The benchmark lost 0.81% on Monday.
New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index .NZ50 rose 1.93% by 2204 GMT.