* Aussie shares at highest since Nov. 1, 2007
* U.S. Fed meeting in focus
* Tech stocks top gainers on the benchmark
By Aditya Soni
July 29 (Reuters) - Australian shares neared a record peak on Monday, with technology stocks dominating the gains after U.S. peers pushed the Nasdaq and S&P 500 to all-time highs.
The S&P/ASX 200 index .AXJO firmed 0.3% or 18.2 points to 6,811.6 by 0200 GMT, having dipped 0.4% on Friday. The index was just 40 points shy of an-all time high of 6,851.50.
Tech stocks .AXIJ surged 1.5% to their highest ever level and were the top gainers on the benchmark.
The increased buying interest in the sector came after robust earnings from U.S. peers such as Alphabet GOOGL.O and Twitter TWTR.N drove a rally on Wall Street. .N
U.S. focused buy-now-pay-later firm Afterpay Touch Group Ltd APT.AX climbed 4.1% to a three-week peak, while Nearmap Ltd NEA.AX hit its highest since July 12.
Broader risk sentiment was also helped by hopes that the U.S. Federal Reserve would signal the beginning of a policy easing cycle later this week. stocks .AXHJ jumped 1.1% to a record peak, with gains concentrated in CSL CSL.AX , the country's fourth-largest firm by market value.
The drugmaker was trading 1.3% near a one-year high, while bionic ear maker Cochlear Ltd COH.AX strengthened 0.8%.
Markets will also closely follow the first-round of Sino-U.S. trade talks since the two sides agreed to truce at the G20 meeting last month.
"Following another month of escalating tensions, agreement on practically anything will be a positive as the market will relish any sign of progress," Stephen Innes, managing partner at Vanguard Markets Pte Ltd Singapore said.
Shares in miners, which export heavily to China, also traded higher. Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) RIO.AX ticked up 0.4% to an almost twelve-year high.
Rio is slated to report its first-half results later this week, with analysts expecting the world's second largest miner of iron ore to benefit from red hot prices of the steel-making commodity.
Shares of infant-formula maker Bubs Australia Ltd BUB.AX jumped 13.8% to their highest since May 9 after the company reported a record quarterly revenue.
Meanwhile, rare earths producer Lynas Corp Ltd LYC.AX slid 2.6% to a near four-week trough after posting a drop in quarterly revenue. the Tasman Sea, New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index .NZ50 rose 0.5% or 48.93 points to 10,856.54.
Gains were dominated by dairy firm a2 Milk Company Ltd ATM.NZ which firmed 3.3% to an all-time high.
Elsewhere, local-shares of Westpac Banking Corp WBC.NZ advanced 0.5%, supporting the rally on the index.