* Fed minutes cool Sept rate liftoff hopes
* German stocks face worst month since 2012
* Kazakh tenge plunges after being floated
By Jamie McGeever
LONDON, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Stocks, oil and emerging market
currencies fell on Thursday as fading expectations for an
imminent U.S. interest rate hike following Federal Reserve
meeting minutes stoked anxiety about the health of the global
economy.
Shares in Asia hit a two-year low, German stocks extended
losses in what is shaping up to be their worst month in over
three years, and British stocks hit their lowest since January.
Pressure on emerging market currencies intensified as
investors fretted over Chinese as well as U.S. growth. Turkey's
lira hit a record low and Kazakhstan's tenge plunged 23 percent
after authorities abandoned its peg and let it float.
"Asian shares tumbled, pressured by lower oil prices and a
slowdown in China ... (and) the latest Fed minutes raised
concerns over the strength of the global economy, questioning
whether rates will be raised next month." said David David
Papier at ETX Capital in London.
The FTSEuroFirst index of 300 leading European shares fell
0.5 percent .FTEU3 and Germany's DAX fell 0.6 percent .GDAXI
to its lowest since January, putting it down more than 6 percent
so far this month.
Britain's FTSE 100 share index, which has a heavy weighting
of resources and energy stocks, fell 0.5 percent to 6,375 points
.FTSE . It is also at a seven-month low.
In Asia, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares
outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS shed 1.6 percent to a two-year
low, marking the fifth consecutive day of losses in what is its
longest losing streak this year.
Japan's Nikkei .N225 fell 0.9 percent.
U.S. futures pointed to a fall of around 0.2 percent at the
open on Wall Street, following Wednesday's losses of almost 1
percent.
TENGE FEVER
Fears that growth in China, which carried the global economy
following the 2008 international financial crisis, is slowing
over the long term are affecting riskier assets around the
world.
Commodities and emerging markets were among the hardest-hit
by fear of slowdown in Chinese demand, worries that were
exacerbated by Wednesday's Fed minutes that suggested
policymakers are increasingly cautious on the U.S. growth and
inflation outlook.
U.S. crude oil CLc1 fell 0.6 percent to $40.55 a barrel
after a fall of more than 4 percent on Wednesday, barely holding
above its 6 1/2-year low of $40.40.
Brent crude futures LCOc1 also fell 0.6 percent to $46.88,
edging near the six-year low of $45.19 touched in January.
Falls in oil and other commodity prices hit many
resource-exporting emerging economies hard, and they have
already suffered shocks from capital outflows as the prospect of
higher U.S. interest rates some time this year looms larger.
MSCI's emerging market index .MSCIEF set a four-year low,
having fallen 22 percent from this year's high hit in April and
coming within a stone's throw of its Oct 2011 trough.
"Markets are nervous of risks and investors are pulling
funds out of emerging economies and resource exporters," said
Daisuke Uno, chief strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Bank.
In emerging market currencies, the Turkish lira TRYTOM=D3
briefly touched 3.0 per dollar as political uncertainty and
conflict focused in the country's southeast undermined investor
sentiment.
The Kazakh tenge plunged to 257 per dollar KZT= from
around 197 after the central bank scrapped its trading band in
another sign of the "currency wars" spreading across emerging
markets. ID:nL5N10V1PB
Minutes from last month's Fed monetary policy meeting showed
officials in broad agreement that the U.S. economy was nearing
the point where interest rates should move higher.
But they also noted lagging inflation and a weak global
economy posed too big a risk to commit to a rates "lift off".
U.S. Treasury yields fell and money market futures 0#FF:
0#:ED rolled back expectations of a rate rise in September.
The 10-year U.S. Treasuries yielded 2.11 percent, having
declined from an eight-month high of 2.50 percent in June.
The dollar also lost its edge against other major
currencies, falling to a three-week low against the yen JPY=
before recovering to 124.00 yen, while the euro rose to $1.1125
EUR= .
On Thursday Greece made a 3.2 billion euro payment to the
European Central Bank on a maturing government bond, tapping
cash from its first disbursement of bailout money, a senior
government official said.
Gold gained XAU= , rising to a one-month high of $1,140.80
per ounce.