* Shares fall as G20 unveils no new growth plan
* China shares fall almost 3 percent
* Yen up sharply, gold heads for best month in four years.
* Oil up as some wonder if prices have bottomed
By Nigel Stephenson
LONDON, Feb 29 (Reuters) - Shares retreated in Europe and
Asia on Monday after a weekend meeting of G20 finance chiefs
ended with no new plan to spur global growth and as investors
fretted the U.S. Federal Reserve could raise interest rates
before year-end.
The dollar, however, tumbled against the Japanese yen as
investors sought shelter from the fall in equities, which saw
Chinese stocks lose nearly 3 percent. Gold, another "safe
haven", rose and was on track for its best month in four years.
G20 finance ministers and central bankers, meeting in
Shanghai on Friday and Saturday, agreed to use "all policy tools
- monetary, fiscal and structural - individually and
collectively" to reach the group's economic goals.
But there was no plan for coordinated stimulus, which some
investors had been seeking after concerns about a slowdown in
China depressed markets at the beginning of 2016.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 fell 1
percent and Germany's DAX .GDAXI was down 1.5 percent.
Britain's FTSE 100 index .FTSE lost 0.8 percent.
"Markets looked at the G20 meeting and found it a tad
disappointing, what they had been looking for was a unification
of the G20 to do something as a force," said Peter Lowman, CIO
of Investment Quorum, a London-based wealth management firm.
REAL ESTATE
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan
.MIAPJ0000PUS dipped 0.6 percent and appeared likely to post
its second consecutive month of losses, with a 1.2 percent drop
so far this month.
Chinese shares closed at one-month lows. The CSI300 index
.CSI300 of the largest listed companies in Shanghai and
Shenzhen, closed down 2.5 percent while the Shanghai Composite
index .SSEC fell 2.9 percent on concern rising real estate
prices would see funds withdrawn from shares.
Tokyo's Nikkei .N225 lost 1 percent as the yen gained,
making life more difficult for Japanese exporters, and on China
worries.
The yen JPY= gained 1 percent to 112.90 per dollar. The
euro dipped 0.1 percent to $1.0922.
The dollar fell 0.1 percent against a basket of its peers
.DXY , having gained on Friday after upbeat U.S. data showing
the U.S. economy grew faster than previously thought in the last
quarter of 2015.
That revived expectations U.S. interest rates could rise
again this year. Any 2016 hike had been priced out of markets
but federal funds futures implied an around 50 percent chance of
a rise in December.
Sterling GBP= , which took a hit last week on worries
Britons could vote to leave the European Union in a June
referendum, was steady at $1.3876.
Weaker stocks helped raised investor appetite for low-risk
government debt. U.S. 10-year Treasuries US10YT=RR yielded
1.75 percent, compared with 1.77 percent in New York on Friday.
German 10-year Bund DE10YT=TWEB yields fell nearly 3 basis
points to 0.12 percent and British gilt GB10YT=RR yields fell
5 bps to 1.36 percent.
Bund traders were looking to preliminary euro zone inflation
data for clues to possible further stimulus from the European
Central Bank.
FLASH INFLATION
"Today's prospective decline in the HICP flash estimate
comes with downside risks given Friday's country releases,"
Commerzbank (DE:CBKG) analysts Rainer Guntermann said. "Speculation about
bolder ECB measures... could unfold."
Oil prices edged up as some in markets said a fall, which
has seen crude lose some 70 percent since mid-2014, may have
reached a bottom. Data on Friday showed a fall in the number of
U.S. shale oil rigs in production.
Brent crude LCOc1 rose 17 cents a barrel to $35.27. It is
up 18 percent since Feb. 11, the last day on which it dipped
below $30.
Gold XAU= gained 0.7 percent to $1,230 per ounce and has
risen 10 percent so far this month, its best performance in four
years.