Australian shares poised to trade higher, NZ breaches 9,000

SYDNEY: Australian shares are set to rise on Friday, backed by robust commodity prices as well as a technology-led rally on Wall Street, with investors looking past recent trade war concerns to earnings optimism in the United States.

Strength in global oil, iron ore and base metals prices could help resource stocks lead the climb on the Australian benchmark.

The Australian local share price index futures rose 0.4 percent, or 24 points, to 6,241, a 27.3-point discount to the underlying S&P/ASX 200 index close. The benchmark rose 0.9 percent on Thursday.

New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index was 0.3 percent or 29.69 points higher to 9,015.16 at 1006 GMT.