By Cecile Lefort and Charlotte Greenfield
SYDNEY/WELLINGTON, April 8 (Reuters) - The Australian and New Zealand dollars nursed losses against their U.S. counterpart and yen on Friday as global growth worries resurfaced, putting them on track for heavy weekly falls.
The Australian dollar AUD=D4 held at $0.7530, having slipped 1.2 percent on Thursday and pulling away from a nine-month peak of $0.7723 touched last week.
Much of the retreat is due to heavy bank share selling globally, with lenders in Europe and Japan in particular struggling against negative interest rates.
Also undermining appetite for commodity currencies was a large drop in copper prices.
"Another wave of risk-off sentiment has gripped the market with the Aussie dollar now testing the $0.7500 level," said Stephen Innes, a senior trader at FX and CFD firm OANDA Australia and Asia Pacific.
A steep rise in the yen has also caught out many investors who had borrowed yen to build long U.S. dollar positions early in the year. The short-covering rippled through all the yen crosses with the Aussie sliding 2.6 percent on Thursday to be last at 82 yen. AUDJPY=R .
It was on track with a weekly fall of 4.1 percent, the second largest this year.
Likewise, the New Zealand dollar dropped 2 percent to a seven-month trough in the last session to be last at 75.85 yen. NZDJPY=R . It has skidded more than 4 percent so far this week.
"JPY was the main focus as it continued to strengthen as markets re-evaluated the efficacy of monetary policy with respect to currencies. If sustained this could herald a sea change in the way global currencies react to monetary policy," said ANZ analysts in a research note.
Some have come to doubt the Bank of Japan can go any further in easing given that's its move into negative interest rates actually saw the yen rise, while damaging Japanese banking shares and the Nikkei average.
Against the U.S. dollar, the kiwi stood at $0.6789 NZD=D4 , from a peak of $0.6864 the previous day. It has lost 1.7 percent this week.
New Zealand government bonds 0#NZTSY= gained, sending yields 2 basis points lower at the short end of the curve and 5 basis points lower at the long end of the curve.
Australian government bond futures rose, with the three-year bond contract YTTc1 up 4 ticks at 98.210. The 10-year contract YTCc1 rose 5 ticks to 97.6000, while the 20-year contract YXXc1 added 6 ticks to 97.0200.