** Australian banking sub-index drops as much as 1.8% to 7052.800 points, hitting its lowest level since Feb 15
** AXFJ among the biggest laggards on the benchmark index
, which was down 1.1%
** Losses come amid hawkish commentary from U.S. Fed Chair Jerome Powell on monetary policy, dampening investor hopes of rapid interest rate cuts this year
** Commonwealth Bank of Australia , the country's top lender, was down 1.4% to hit lowest level since Jan 4
** National Australia Bank , Westpac banking Corp
and ANZ Group decline between 1% and 1.4%
** Sub-index set for worst week since mid-August, if trend holds
** AXFJ up 6.3% this year, as of last close, vs a 0.7% increase in the ASX 200 benchmark
(Reporting by Adwitiya Srivastava in Bengaluru)
((Adwitiya.Srivastava@thomsonreuters.com;))
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