News: WOW Australia shares set to open lower, results to dominate

MELBOURNE, Aug 25 (Reuters) - Australian shares are set to open lower, under pressure from mining and energy stocks, while results and outlooks from Woolworths, South32, Amcor and other top 200 companies will offer additional direction.

Local share price index futures YAPcm1 slipped 0.1 percent to a 24.7-point discount to the underlying S&P/ASX 200 index (xjo) close, pointing to a weaker opening. The benchmark inched up 0.1 percent on Wednesday.

New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index (nz50) rose 0.2 percent to 7,423.21 in early trade.

Woolworths (WOW), Australia's biggest grocer, reported its first annual loss, as expected, hit by big write-offs on its exit from hardware. Its underlying profit before one-offs slid 39 percent to A$1.558 billion, in line with market forecasts.

Amcor (AMC) beat analysts' forecasts with a 7.5 percent rise in underlying annual profit to $671 million. Analysts' forecasts were around $594 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Miner South32 reported a 76 percent drop in underlying annual earnings to $138 million, but that was better than analysts had feared, and it paid a final dividend of 1 cent a share, while the market had expected no dividend.