News: RIO Australian shares fall as miners, Fed rate-hike views weigh

April 22 (Reuters) - Australian shares fell on Friday, as investors took cues from a tepid Wall Street overnight finish after the U.S. Federal Reserve reiterated aggressive rate-hike views, while miners also dragged the benchmark index lower on weak iron ore prices.

The S&P/ASX 200 index (xjo) was down 1.5% at 7,479.20 points, as of 0038 GMT. The benchmark, which closed 0.3% higher on Thursday, was on track for its worst week in two months, if losses hold.

Miners slumped 3.9% and were set for their biggest weekly drop since last August after iron ore prices fell amid COVID-19 concerns and steel production controls in top steel producer China.

Global miners BHP (BHP) and Rio Tinto (RIO) , which flagged continuing production weakness earlier this week, fell 5% and 4.1%, respectively, to be the top losers in the mining sub-index.

BHP was on track to mark the biggest weekly drop in eight months while Rio was poised for its worst day since March 15.

Shares of Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) , which is due to report its quarterly production numbers next week, skid 3.2%.

Tech stocks .AXIJ fell 2.5% to hit a one-month low, tracking the tech-heavy Nasdaq lower after Fed Chair Jerome Powell offered further signposting of aggressive interest rate hikes this year.

Australia-listed shares of Megaport (MP1) and Block Inc (SQ2) dived 10.6% and 5.9%, respectively, to be the top losers in the technology sub-index.

Financials were down 0.9% with the "Big Four" banks losing between 0.4% and 0.8%. Looming rate hikes weighed on bullion with gold stocks .AXGD slumping more than 2%.

New Zealand's S&P/NZX 50 (nz50) fell 0.4% to 11,910.8 points.