Feb 3 (Reuters) - Australian shares were likely to open higher on Wednesday after big U.S. tech names pushed major Wall Street indexes higher overnight, while domestic investors eye a speech by Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Philip Lowe later in the day.
Lowe's speech in Canberra is likely to focus on the central bank's policy settings for the year ahead after it held its cash rate and announced an extension of its quantitative easing program on Tuesday. local share price index futures YAPcm1 rose 0.9%, a 17.6-point discount to the underlying S&P/ASX 200 index .AXJO close. The benchmark closed 1.5% higher on Tuesday.
New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index .NZ50 rose 0.8% to 13,153.62 by 2116 GMT.