LONDON: Global stocks eased a notch and major currencies traded in tight ranges on Monday following Saudi Arabia’s crackdown on corruption.

The news stirred concerns of Middle Eastern money pulling out of global financial markets. A weekend call by China’s central bank governor for tougher financial regulation also hit investor sentiment.

The MSCI world equity index, which tracks shares in 47 countries was 0.1 per cent lower.

European shares turned flat after falling in early deals on weaker trading in Asia and earnings disappointments. The pan-European STOXX 600 was 0.1 per cent lower by 1202 GMT. Saudi Arabia’s own stock market fell over 1.5 per cent.

Shares in French hotel group Accor fell as much as 1.7 per cent at the open, the biggest of the CAC 40 fallers, after its third biggest shareholder Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal was arrested in the Saudi Arabian crackdown.

Prince Al Waleed, a nephew of the king and owner of investment firm Kingdom Holding, invests in firms such as Citigroup and Twitter.

The dollar was little changed after investors took profits on its best weekly performance this year, with wariness about the status of the US economy and tax reform plans setting the tone.

It briefly popped to a eight-month high against the Japanese yen in Asian trades but, with last week’s US jobs data having been relatively underwhelming, London-based traders were a bit more cautious.

Investors were, however, wary of selling the greenback aggressively with the passage of the US tax bill due this week.

Facing pockets of discontent in their own Republican ranks, tax negotiators in the US. House of Representatives will seek to bridge differences over their far-reaching tax bill and stick to a self-imposed deadline of passage this month.

The index that measures the greenback against a basket of currencies was less than 0.1 per cent lower in European trading. The euro fell 0.1 per cent to $1.15960.

Investors’ sentiment towards Germany rose to an all-time high in November as the Eurozone’s largest economy led a global economic boom, research group Sentix said. Broader indexes for the Eurozone and the global economy hit 10-year highs.

Spot gold was steady at $1,271.50 an ounce.