Australia shares likely to start week lower; New Zealand down

FILE PHOTO - Pedestrians are reflected in a window in front of a board displaying stock prices at the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) in Sydney, Australia, February 9, 2018. REUTERS/David Gray

(Reuters) - Australian shares are expected to slip on Monday weighed down by mining stocks hit by the weakness in copper and iron ore prices.

Three-month LME copper <CMCU3> fell 0.3% on Friday, while the most-traded iron ore on the Dalian Commodity Exchange for September delivery <DCIOcv1> erased early gains to close unchanged at 873 yuan ($127.02) a tonne . [ironore/]

The local share price index futures <YAPcm1> fell 0.5% or 30 points to 6,604, a 92.5-point discount to the underlying S&P/ASX 200 index <.AXJO> close. The benchmark fell 0.3% on Friday.

New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index <.NZ50> rose/fell 0.1% at 2211 GMT.

(Reporting by Shanima A in Bengaluru; Editing by Susan Thomas)