Nov 18 (Reuters) - Stock markets in Australia are poised to open flat on Wednesday as rising coronavirus cases raised concerns about fresh lockdown measures and offset recent optimism over promising vaccine trial results.
Australian authorities conducted mass tests on Tuesday and about 4,000 people were confined to quarantine in an attempt to stifle a new cluster of cases after hopes the virus had been largely eradicated. local share price index futures YAPcm1 rose 0.1%, a 10.8-point premium to the underlying S&P/ASX 200 index .AXJO close. The benchmark closed up 0.2% on Tuesday at its highest level since late February.
In New Zealand, the benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index .NZ50 rose 0.4% in early trade.