June 9 (Reuters) - Australian shares fell to near four-week closing lows on Thursday, with banks tumbling further as the central bank's largest interest rate hike in more than two decades raised concerns about the housing market.

The S&P/ASX 200 index ended 1.42% lower at 7,019.7, down for a third session in four. The so called "big four" banks slipped between 2.3% and 3.7%, as the central bank's rate hike earlier this week sparked fears of a sell-off in the housing market.

"How homeowners adjust to rates moving higher is in the spotlight," said Nathan Zaia, a senior equity analyst at Morningstar.

"There is no doubt bad debts will rise, but we think a return to longer-term averages is more likely than some sort of spike."

Financials fell for the fourth straight session, closing 2.1% lower.

"Bank stocks have been trading mainly sideways for more than a year and are now rolling over on macro worries. We consider the whole sector as a sell candidate over the next year," said Mathan Somasundaram, chief executive officer at Deep Data Analytics.

Miners were also among the top drags, falling 2.4% on weak iron ore prices as reduced profitability at Chinese steel mills weighed on investor sentiment.

Iron ore behemoths BHP and Rio Tinto dropped 2.4% and 1.2%, respectively.

Bucking the trend, energy stocks climbed 0.56% and were the only gainers on the benchmark, with oil and gas major Woodside Energy group up 1.9%.

Meanwhile, Crown Resorts jumped nearly 2% after gambling regulators cleared private equity giant Blackstone Inc to run the troubled casinos of Crown in the country's two largest cities.

In New Zealand, the benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index closed 0.48% lower at 11,211.31. (Reporting By Navya Mittal in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)