* European shares up 0.5 percent; Wall Street seen flat
* G20 policymakers confirm ready to take steps on growth
* Dollar firm on relative U.S. GDP strength, Fed outlook
* Oil near 2-1/2-month lows on glut worries
By Marc Jones
LONDON, July 25 (Reuters) - World shares held near nine-month highs on Monday after G20 finance chiefs said over the weekend they would use "all policy tools" to lift global growth.
The signals helped European stocks climb over 0.5 percent .FTEU3 as takeover activity also continued in the UK gambling sector and talk of record profits at Ryanair helped dispel some of the recent gloom surrounding airlines. .EU
Backsliding oil prices LCOc1 held back commodity firms .SXEP and some emerging markets, however, meaning MSCI's All World index .MIWD00000PUS failed to get over the peaks it scaled last week.
Wall Street was expected to start the week flat too, with last week's record highs for the S&P 500 ESc1 and Dow Jones 1YMc1 likely to keep traders, still in the thick of earnings season, cautious for the next couple of days. .N
While the weekend's signals from the G20 meeting in China were welcome, investors are anticipating a hectic week that includes a U.S. Federal Reserve meeting, European bank stress tests and what could be another super-sized slug of stimulus from Japan. think everyone is range-trading at the moment and just waiting to see what the direction is," said TD Securities head of global research Richard Kelly.
"The Bank of Japan is really the one that is front and centre this time with the all talk around 'helicopter money'," he added. "If they disappoint, which I think is probably more likely, then we are likely to see risk assets coming off."
Bank of Japan chief Haruhiko Kuroda said at the weekend he could ease policy further but also that there had been no discussion about the more radical option of "helicopter money" whereby the bank might directly underwrite government debt. yen was losing ground against the dollar JPY= , though at 106.30 yen it was off last week's six-week low and the greenback struggled to make much of an impact against either sterling GBP= or the euro EUR= . FRX/
The dollar's index against a basket of six major currencies .DXY =USD stood at 97.371, having hit a 4-1/2-month high of 97.543 on Friday.
"Dollar/yen could test the 108 handle if the Fed's comments this week are supportive towards a rate hike and if the BOJ eases," said Koji Fukaya at FPG Securities in Tokyo.
"On the other hand, the pair could drop below 105 if the BOJ stands pat as easing expectations are well entrenched."
OIL TOILS, POKEMON NO-GO
In bond markets, euro zone yields mostly held near post-Brexit lows.
Benchmark German 10-year yields were up a few ticks at minus 0.06 percent DE10YT=TWEB and the Italian IT10YT=TWEB and Spanish equivalents ES10YT=TWEB were at 1.24 and 1.12 percent respectively, a couple of basis points from multi-month lows.
As well as ongoing talk of central bank stimulus and low oil prices keeping down inflation, this week also sees a series of bond redemptions that will mean investors have cash to buy again. GVD/EUR
Oil prices meanwhile hovered near 2-1/2-month lows having lost about 4 percent last week on renewed worries about a global crude glut. O/R
Strategists at Barclays (LON:BARC) said global oil demand growth was set to be a third of what it was in the same quarter last year.
Brent crude futures LCOc1 traded at $45.40 per barrel, down 0.6 percent and near Friday's $45.17 which was its lowest since May 11. Gold XAU= also struggled, dipping 0.5 percent to 1,316 an ounce. GOL/
Emerging markets remained focused on Turkey where assets were rebounding from a hammering last week. Istanbul stocks .XU100 clawed back 3 percent of the 13 percent they had lost following the country's failed coup, while the lira TRY= bounced over 1 percent. EMRG/FRX
Asian trading had been mostly rangebound though Nintendo's shares 7974.T tumbled as much as 18 percent after the company said smash hit Pokemon GO would have a limited impact on the games maker's earnings. owns some of the rights to Pokemon and has an undisclosed stake in GO's developer Niantic and the firm's stock price had more than doubled over the last two weeks, adding nearly $12 billion to its market value.
<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Global assets in 2016
http://reut.rs/1WAiOSC Oil prices
http://link.reuters.com/beb23v EM stocks performance in 2016
http://link.reuters.com/weh36s European bourses in 2015
http://link.reuters.com/pap87v Currencies in 2016
http://link.reuters.com/tak27s Commodities performance
http://link.reuters.com/reb25t
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>