The Australian sharemarket notched up a second day of losses on Friday after a rout on Wall Street, snapping a six week winning streak.

The S&P/ASX200 Index fell 112.8 points, or 1.9 per cent, to 5847.8 points on Friday after the Dow Jones Industrial Average slumped 6.9 per cent in Thursday trading amid concerns about the outlook for the US economy and a rise in new COVID-19 cases.

The index fell 3 per cent to an intraday low of 5756.5 points before staging a recovery in the afternoon as US futures started trading firmer.

The benchmark stumbled to a weekly loss of 2.5 per cent due to heavy selling across Thursday and Friday sparked by the Federal Reserve's downbeat views on the outlook for US growth.

Banks once again paced the market's losses on Friday as wariness about the recovery and a flattening of the yield curve prompted investors to cash in profits from the sector's 40 per cent rally off its March lows.

Westpac was the biggest loser on Friday, losing 3.3 per cent to $17.89. NAB and ANZ both lost more than 2 per cent, while Commonwealth Bank retreated 1.6 per cent to $67.32.

Energy stocks were also big decliners after the Brent crude oil price fell 8 per cent overnight. Woodside dropped 5.3 per cent to $21.37 and BHP fell 2.1 per cent to $35.99. Origin Energy shed 4 per cent to $5.74.

Other blue chip losers included Transurban (down 2 per cent), Telstra (down 1.9 per cent), and Insurance Australia Group (down 3.6 per cent).

Afterpay staged an impressive comeback. The buy now, pay later provider fell to a low of $47.10 but rallied to close at $51.86, down 0.5 per cent for the day.

Supermarket operator Coles Group was one of the few winners on Friday, climbing 0.5 per cent to $15.91.