GLOBAL MARKETS-Stocks rally as Buffett bites into Apple, oil eyes $50

* Global stocks rise for second day in a row

* Oil making a "fool" of forecasters

* Sterling, Aussie the big gainers in FX

By Jamie McGeever

LONDON, May 17 (Reuters) - World shares rose on Tuesday as technology giant Apple Inc (NasdaqGS: AAPL - news) 's biggest rise in over two months and oil's march higher to near $50 a barrel boosted investor demand for riskier assets at the expense of safe-haven bonds.

MSCI (NYSE: MSCI - news) 's index of global shares rose 0.2 percent , putting it on track for its second consecutive rise, something it has not managed in a month.

Europe's major stock markets rose as much as 1 percent before easing back, following similar gains in Asia after Wall Street had also chalked up a 1 percent rise on Monday.

The rally lost some steam, however, and U.S (Other OTC: UBGXF - news) . stock futures pared earlier gains to signal a rise of around 0.1 percent at the open on Wall Street.

"Markets are once again up on higher commodity prices. Nevertheless, we should not get carried away and chase the commodity complex higher as most of these markets are still very much over-supplied," Philippe Gijsels, head of research at BNP (Paris: FR0000131104 - news) Paribas Fortis, said.

Brent crude oil futures rose to their highest level in almost six months, within a few cents of breaking above $50 for the first time since Nov. 4, before drifting back below $49 by midday in Europe.

At 1100 GMT, the FTSEuroFirst 300 index of leading European shares was up 0.5 percent at 1,321 points, with Germany's DAX up 0.2 percent, France's CAC 40 up 0.1 percent and Britain's FTSE 100 gaining 0.5 percent.

The basic resources sector was among the biggest sectoral gainers, up 1 percent.

Earlier in Asia, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.9 percent, extending its recovery from a two-month low set on Friday. Japan's Nikkei gained about 1.1 percent.

FOOL'S BLACK GOLD

Oil's rise to six-month highs came as supply disruptions prompted long-time bear Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS-PB - news) to issue a bullish assessment on near-term prices. Goldman has long warned of global storage hitting capacity and of another oil price crash to as low as $20 per barrel.

A combination of Nigerian, Venezuelan and other outages, declining U.S. production, and virtually frozen inflows of Canadian crude after wildfires in Alberta's oil sands region all helped to lift oil prices.

"The oil market continues to make an even larger fool of most forecasters than other financial assets: having caught everyone out by plummeting, it is now catching us out by continuing to rise," Rabobank analysts wrote.

Brent crude futures rose as high as $49.31 per barrel on Tuesday, after having risen 2.4 percent on Monday, touching $49.47, the highest since early November. By midday, however, they had slipped back to $48.84.

U.S. crude's West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures rose to $48.42 before giving back most of that rise, having risen 3.3 percent on Monday.

Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) in Apple finished 3.7 percent higher on Monday after Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (Sao Paolo: BERK34F.SA - news) reported taking a stake of about $1 billion in the iPhone maker. Apple shares had lost about one-fifth of their value in the past month on worries about the company's slowing sales growth.

In the currency market, the British pound rose 0.6 percent to $1.45 helped in part by a report that the "In" campaign held a 15-point lead over rival "Out" ahead of Britain's June 23 referendum on European Union membership.

The dollar was little changed against the euro at $1.1320 , but rose 0.5 percent against the yen to 109.50 yen as investors took a 'risk on' stance on Tuesday.

The Australian dollar rose 1 percent to a high of $0.7366 , its best day in over a month, after minutes of the Reserve Bank of Australia's May policy meeting were less dovish in tone than many investors had expected.

Bond yields were mostly higher, with U.S. yields up a basis point across the curve and benchmark euro zone yields up around 2 basis points .

(Reporting by Jamie McGeever and Atul Prakash; Editing by Tom Heneghan)