Australia shares poised to slip at open, miners likely to drag

Australian shares were set to open lower on Tuesday, with the benchmark weighed on by heavyweight miners' fears of Chinese regulatory scrutiny into iron ore prices.

Iron ore futures slumped on Monday as speculative interest in the steelmaking ingredient faded after China's steel producers pushed for a regulatory probe into skyrocketing prices and a crackdown on any wrongdoing.

The local share price index futures fell 0.3%, a 16.2-point discount to the underlying S&P/ASX 200 index close.

The benchmark rose 0.3% on Monday.

New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index rose 0.3% to 12,874.89 at 2116 GMT.