Australian shares are poised to open higher on Thursday on the back of tech stocks, and taking cues from Wall Street which ended sharply higher after the Federal Reserve signaled it would likely taper its stimulus soon.

The local share price index futures rose 0.2%, a 6.9-point discount to the underlying S&P/ASX 200 index close. The benchmark closed 0.3% higher at 7,296.9, on Wednesday.

New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index rose 0.3% to 13,215.8 in early trade.