Australian shares are set to open lower on Thursday, tracking declines on Wall Street overnight, with a dip in commodity prices expected to weigh on domestic miners while a steady rise in the country's COVID-19 cases could hurt risk sentiment.

The local share price index futures fell 0.67%, a 124.1-point discount to the underlying S&P/ASX 200 index
close.

The benchmark fell 0.1% on Wednesday.

New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index rose 0.3% to 12,753.45 points in early trade.