By Aditya Soni
Sept 19 (Reuters) - Australian shares were expected to open marginally higher on Tuesday, mirroring Wall Street where the S&P 500 ended slightly up ahead of a two-day U.S. Federal Reserve meeting.
The U.S. central bank is widely expected to announce at the end of its meeting on Wednesday that it will start to trim its vast portfolio of Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities, with the reductions likely to begin this year.
The local share price index futures YAPcm1 rose 0.12 percent or 7 points to 5727, a 6.4-point premium to the underlying S&P/ASX 200 index .AXJO close. The benchmark rose 0.5 percent on Monday.
New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index .NZ50 rose 0.06 percent to 7763.260 by 2208 GMT.