* Dollar index up 0.2 percent at 79.141
* Chinese shares fall 4.3 percent
By Tamawa Desai
LONDON, Aug 19 (Reuters) - The dollar and yen were well-bid on Wednesday after Chinese shares extended losses, prompting investors to pull back from riskier assets.
Shanghai Composite Index closed down 4.3 percent on Wednesday, led by recently listed shares as investors bailed out of the market, disappointed that authorities did not take steps to support the market after the key index fell 20 percent from two weeks ago.
European shares were pulled lower, falling more than 1.0 percent in early trade, while U.S. S&P 500 futures index was also down 1.1 percent.
"Chinese stocks were dumped into the close, and that provided an instant bid to the dollar, with everything coming off on the back of that," said Christian Lawrence, currency strategist at RBC Capital Markets.
The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was up 0.3 percent at 79.176.
The yen also rose broadly. At 0748 GMT, it was up some 0.5 percent against the dollar at 94.23 yen while rising 0.7 percent against the euro to 132.88 yen.
Earlier the yen had fallen after robust U.S. corporate results gave support to Wall Street and helped boost growth-linked currencies such as the Australian dollar.
The euro was down 0.2 percent at $1.4096, off an earlier high just above $1.4170 but remaining supported by Tuesday's better-than-expected German ZEW data.
Sterling fell 0.6 percent to $1.6452, erasing some of its sharp gains made the previous day after data showed British inflation remained stubbornly high. Minutes of the Bank of England's latest policy meeting, where it boosted its quantitative easing programme by a larger-than-expected amount, are expected to show a unanimous decision.
Higher-yielding currencies such as the Australian and New Zealand dollars dipped, with the Aussie dollar easing 0.6 percent to $0.8207 and the kiwi also slipping 0.6 percent to $0.6694.
The Aussie had hit an 11-month high on Friday while the kiwi reached a 2009 peak, before both retreated in the face of a sell-off in risky assets that has gathered pace since late last week.
"We will see more volatility and choppy trades given that not much is happening in terms of events. So any correction to stock markets could be a key driver for currencies," said Katie Dean, a senior market economist at ANZ. (Additional reporting by Satomi Noguchi in Tokyo; Editing by Toby Chopra)