SYDNEY, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Australian shares are expected to trade flat on Monday as the prices of key commodities continue to languish and investors consider the prospect that the U.S. economic recovery may be taking longer than expected.
The shares will follow a sluggish lead from offshore markets after Wall St ended lower on Friday with investors little encouraged by U.S. Federal Reserve comments downplaying the impact of global market volatility.
Meanwhile, the prices of important export commodities like steel-making ingredient iron ore .IO62-CNI=SI ended the previous week near multi-year lows amid fears a slowdown in demand from China will continue.
Local share price index futures YAPcm1 were down 4.0 points at 5028.0, a 14.1-point discount to the underlying S&P/ASX 200 index .AXJO close.
On Friday, the benchmark fell 29.6 points to 5,042.1. It has lost 3.2 percent in September so far after falling 8.6 percent in August, its worst monthly performance since the global financial crisis.
New Zealand's benchmark NZX 50 index .NZ50 rose 0.2 percent or 9.4 points to 5,696.7 in early trade.
For a summary of overnight action across global markets, double click on AU/CALL
For a digest of the day's business stories in Australian newspapers, double click on PRESS/AUB