SYDNEY, May 20 (Reuters) - Australian shares are set for a lacklustre start on Friday with a fall on Wall Street and an absence of major action in commodity prices offering investors no real leads.
Pointing to a subdued open, share price index futures YAPcm1 eased a mere 0.1 percent to 5,339.0, a 15.7-point premium to the underlying S&P/ASX 200 index .AXJO close. The benchmark fell 0.6 percent on Thursday.
Before the opening bell, Australia's Oil Search OSH.AX announced it had agreed on a takeover offer worth $2.2 billion for its Papua New Guinea rival InterOil Corp IOC.N and said it would sell part of InterOil's key asset to French oil major Total SA TOTF.PA . Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index .NZ50 shed 0.2 percent, or 16.0 points, to 6,887.6 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