GLOBAL MARKETS - Stocks rise, dollar falls after stimulus pledge

By Tamawa Desai

LONDON (Reuters) - Global stocks rose and the dollar fell on Monday after the Group of 20 pledged to keep stimulus in place until recovery was assured, following data on Friday showing the U.S. unemployment rate rose to a 26-year high.

The MSCI world equity index rose 0.8 percent in early London trade while European shares were up 1.2 percent.

That came after Tokyo's Nikkei share average closed up 0.2 percent and other Asian shares also gained.

"The markets have not been given any excuse to do a lot of correcting," said Bernard McAlinden, strategist at NCB Stockbrokers. "At the G20 meeting, the members agreed to keep the stimulus in place."

The dollar fell broadly as higher-yielding and commodity-linked currencies benefitted from renewed risk-taking sentiment.

"We have positive equity markets so we have risk appetite. And that is still a dollar negative. People are buying into higher-yielding currencies or currencies where rates are going higher," said Niels Christiensen at Nordea in Copenhagen.

"It's difficult to pinpoint any reason to hold or buy the dollar. So the dollar is still the preferred funding currency."

The euro was up 0.8 percent against the dollar at $1.4966. The Australian dollar was up 0.9 percent against the U.S. dollar and the New Zealand dollar was up 1.5 percent.