Analysts say the financial stocks on the ASX have had their worst week so far since the pandemic started.
The ASX 200 traded lower throughout Thursday and ended down 1.4 per cent to 7,020. The All Ords was down 1.5 per cent.
The finance index lost 2.1 per cent overall. Over the last week, it is down 7.5 per cent.
Commonwealth Bank was also down 2.6 per cent, while ANZ was down 1.7 per cent and NAB 2.3 per cent. Westpac had the worst loss at 3.7 per cent.
Banks and other financial providers were losing ground as interest rates were hiked in Australia, which impacts lending.
Senior market analyst for City Index Tony Sycamore said the index had just witnessed its biggest decline in a week since the start of COVID, when it lost 45 per cent in five weeks.
"The financial sector is now testing support," he noted.
"Growth in housing credit has picked up in recent years, alongside the strong growth in housing prices. However, higher interest rates reduce demand for credit, a key driver of bank profitability."
He said reduced levels of consumer confidence, as seen in other data this week, were also bad for banks.
"In a simplified world, this leads to job losses which in turn leads to households falling behind in their payments and a reduction in the quality of banks' loan books."
While the banks are having a bad week, energy stocks gained on Thursday as the price of oil rose again on global markets. The energy index had gained almost 8 per cent.
Winners included Woodside Energy, which was up 1.8 per cent.
Meanwhile, miner Rio Tinto has come out calling for more renewable energy projects to power its aluminium plants in Queensland.
It has two alumina refineries and a smelter around Gladstone in central Queensland.
They require 1,140MW of power to operate, making Rio Tinto the state's biggest user of energy.
The company said it has lodged a formal market request for new wind and solar projects to supply its Gladstone plants.
In other news, it was also revealed that a Russian entity was filing a lawsuit against Rio Tinto over one of those same plants, which it has a 20 per cent stake in.
Australia banned the export of alumina and aluminium ores to Russia in March, and Rio Tinto stepped in and took sole control of the Gladstone refinery in April.
Russian aluminium producer Rusal now argues Rio was in breach of its obligations by taking control.
Rio Tinto lost 1.1 per cent.
Oil price rises and inflation woes continue
The losses in Australia came after Wall Street and European stocks ended down in trade overnight, with losses as high as 1.1 per cent on the S&P 500.
The price of oil is up again, this time by 2.8 per cent to $US123.94.
"Brent oil is up for the eighth day in the past 10," NAB notes this morning.
"(That's) up $10 in the past fortnight.
Inflation data for the United States is also out this week. The last round showed yet another spike in prices.
Economists including ANZ are tipping the US is headed for another rate hike to curtail inflation.
"We expect the US Federal Reserve will raise rates by 0.5 per cent at its 14 to 15 June meeting and reiterate guidance that it intends to return rates to neutral quickly," ANZ noted today.
"We also expect it to maintain its guidance that rates will rise by 0.5 per cent in July to 2.0 per cent."
Just this week, the Reserve Bank of Australia hiked rates by an unexpected 0.5 per cent to curtail inflation here.
The OECD has also put out its latest economic outlook.
The organisation covers economic concerns for 38 nations including Australia
"It has slashed the global growth outlook to 3 per cent from the 4.5 per cent estimated in December," NAB notes.
"The OECD also doubled its forecast for inflation among its members (which include the US, Australia, Japan, and Latin American and European nations) to 8.5 per cent, its highest level since 1988."
The Australian dollar has gone below the 72 US cents mark after a loss of 0.6 per cent.
