Oct 21 (Reuters) - Australian shares were set to open higher on Tuesday with a potential boost from gold stocks after a bullion rally while investors await quarterly production results from mining giant BHP and diversified miner South32.

The local share price index futures YAPcm1 rose 0.5%, a 57.1-point premium to the underlying S&P/ASX 200 index .AXJO close. The benchmark closed 0.4% higher on Monday.

New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index .NZ50 inched lower in early trade.

(Reporting by Sneha Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Chris Reese)

((Sneha.kumar@thomsonreuters.com))

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