* Bank of England unexpectedly hold rates, sterling leaps
* Markets gear up for more global stimulus
* Yen up on report Bernanke floated perpetual bonds to Abe aide
* Oil rebounds after major sell-off on Wednesday
By Marc Jones
LONDON, July 14 (Reuters) - Sterling surged and world shares stopped in their tracks having hit an eight-month high on Thursday, as the Bank of England unexpectedly opted to keep its post-Brexit powder dry for at least few more weeks.
Talk of more stimulus from Japan had put markets in a bullish mood ahead of what had been tipped as the BoE's first interest rate cut since 2009. So its decision to hold off, although probably only until August, stalled the momentum.
European stocks and Wall Street futures trimmed some their day's gains. London's FTSE went from being up 0.8 percent to flat within minutes as sterling ramped up 1.8 percent and 1.3 percent against the dollar and the euro respectively.
That put the pound on course for its best week since 2009 while British government bonds were ditched as investors betting on a shock-and-awe strategy from BoE chief Mark Carney began to retreat.
"There's going to be a bit of disappointment in financial markets. They had taken Carney's earlier comments about easier monetary policy to heart, said Aberdeen Asset Management economist Paul Diggle.
"But the next meeting is only three weeks away, and by then Carney and his colleagues will have a few extra post-referendum data points to digest as well as a new set of forecasts so the market should get its way then."
Sterling rose as high as $1.3480, up more than 2 percent, before easing, while the euro climbed to a nine-day high of $1.1165 as traders began to trim their expectations of further ECB stimulus this year.
The potential for BOE action next month, which investors believe could set off another round of global central bank- and government-led stimulus, meant broader markets were not too be pushed off course.
MSCI's 46-country All World index was barely budged from an eight-month high it had hit in early European trading and Wall Street was set to add around 0.6 percent to Wednesday's latest record high.
In the currency market, the pound wasn't the only big mover.
The yen fell to 105.67 yen per dollar down 4 percent since the start of the week, which if it holds will be the sharpest drop since 1999 and the sixth biggest since the end of the Bretton Woods era over 40 years ago.
Helping fuel the move was a report that former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke had floated the idea of perpetual bonds with one of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's key advisers in April.