(Corrects to 'low' in paragraph 3)
* Yen rises broadly on heightened risk aversion, weak shares
* Dollar hits 3-week low vs yen of 97.62 yen
* Sterling tumbles on grim UK govt forecasts in budget
* Euro steady vs dollar; US banking sector concerns linger
(Recasts, adds quotes, changes byline)
By Jessica Mortimer
LONDON, April 22 (Reuters) - The yen rose broadly on Wednesday as falls in share prices encouraged investors to pare back exposure to risk on Wednesday, while sterling fell sharply as the UK government issued grim forecasts in its annual budget.
Falls in European equities and U.S. stock futures helped stoke buying of the Japanese currency, which typically benefits in times of heightened risk aversion.
This pushed the dollar to a 3-week low against the yen, while the euro was close to a one-month high, and weighed on higher yielding currencies such as the Australian and New Zealand dollars.
Sterling also fell sharply as UK Finance Minister Alistair Darling forecast that the economy will contract by 3.5 this year as public sector net borrowing jumps to 175 billion pounds, or some 12.4 percent of gross domestic product.
For highlights of the UK budget click on
"Risk trades have continued in forex markets, mainly to the benefit of the yen," CMC Markets chief market analyst Ashraf Laidi said.
He added that risk aversion played out mostly in terms of strength in the yen rather than the dollar, however, with the euro steady against the U.S. currency.
At 1222 GMT, the dollar fell 1 percent against the yen to hit a three-week low of 97.62 yen, while the euro also lost 1 percent to 126.53 yen. The euro was steady against the dollar at $1.2940.
Among higher risk currencies, the Australian dollar lost 1.1 percent against its U.S. counterpart to $0.7030 while the New Zealand dollar dropped by 1.1 percent to $0.5555.
Analysts said uncertainty over the health of the U.S. banking sector and ongoing concerns about the global economic slowdown have prompted investors unwound riskier trades, where the yen is used to invest in relatively higher yielding assets.
CMC's Laidi added that comments from Japan's Ministry of Finance earlier that currencies would not be a major issue at a meeting of Group of Seven finance ministers this week "may also have emboldened short term positions in the yen". For story click on.
STERLING FALLS
Sterling tumbled 1.1 percent against the dollar to $1.4511, while the euro rose by 1.2 percent versus the pound to 89.20 pence as the UK's Darling announced details of the UK budget.
Analysts expressed concern about the impact on the economy further out of such a large jump in government borrowing.
Investec economist Philip Shaw said forecasts for net borrowing of 5.5 percent of GDP in 2013/14 "is an extremely high level of government borrowing over the medium term". For more analyst views click on.
The market is awaiting the outcome of the U.S. authorities' stress tests on banks. U.S. officials are expected to release details of the underlying assumptions of the tests on Friday, but actual results are not expected until May 4.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Tuesday that most U.S. banks have enough capital to keep lending but a pile of bad debts is fostering doubts about their health and slowing a recovery.
An International Monetary Fund report warned that global write-downs by banks and other financial institutions could reach $4.1 trillion as institutions seek to clean up their balance sheets..
Meanwhile, sentiment towards the euro remained shaky due to uncertainty over what the European Central Bank will decide at its next policy meeting in May. The ECB is seen cutting interest rates to 1.0 percent from 1.25 percent in May but it is unclear whether it will follow the Federal Reserve and other central banks and create money via other means such as buying corporate or sovereign debt.
(Reporting by Jessica Mortimer; additional reporting by Naomi Tajitsu; editing by Victoria Main)