Australian shares to start lower on weak overseas cues

The news: The Australian sharemarket is set to fall in early trading with investors relying on cues from European markets, where stocks ended lower ahead of a slew of central bank meetings.

The numbers: The pan-European STOXX 600 index closed 0.2% lower, weighed down by declines in real estate and technology stocks, while Britain's FTSE 100 reversed early losses to close up 0.2%. In the local market, ASX 200 futures were down 21 points or 0.27% to 7,752 points at 7:00am AEST on Thursday.

The context: With Wall Street closed for the Juneteenth public holiday, the focus remained on European markets, where investors turned jittery ahead of interest rate decisions from central banks in Britain, Norway and Switzerland later this week. European shares have already seen sharp losses last week amid political uncertainty after France's president called a snap election.

In the local market, investor attention will be focused on first quarter GDP results from New Zealand, as well as the market debut of fast food chain Guzman Y Gomez on the ASX.