* U.S. Federal Reserve cut interest rates
* G7 pledged "appropriate", unspecific policy moves
* Marketing firm 4imprint jumps on minimal virus impact
* FTSE 100 up 1%, FTSE 250 adds 2%
(Adds stock close, news items)
By Devik Jain and Noor Zainab Hussain
March 3 (Reuters) - London's bluechip index rose for a
second day on Tuesday, as the U.S. Federal Reserve cut interest
rates to protect the U.S. economy from the impact of the
coronavirus, marking the central bank's first emergency rate cut
since the financial crisis.
Group of Seven finance officials also pledged "appropriate",
unspecific policy moves as the coronavirus spreads around the
world, hitting sports events, trade exhibitions and other large
gatherings worldwide.
Britain's blue-chip index ended the day 1% higher,
while the domestically focused mid-cap index rose 2%.
Banks ended the day in the red, down 2.13%, while miners
and airlines up between 2.2% and 2.8%,
after they were caught up in last week's rout that erased over
$5 trillion from global equity markets.
"Global central banks, while not equipped to deal with a
pandemic directly, have the tools to short-circuit the brutal
sell-off," said Vishnu Varathan, head of economics at Mizuho
Bank.
Australia's central bank cut interest rates to a record low
on Tuesday, while those in Japan, Britain, France and the United
States have signalled willingness to inject more cash into the
system.
But analysts have expressed doubt about the efficacy of
interest rate cuts amid severe disruptions to the supply chain.
Several multinational companies including Rio Tinto and
Diageo have flagged a hit to profits this year.
"A Fed rate cut of 50 basis points rate won't get people on
planes, it won't get people out spending money at a time when
potentially people are going into quarantine and people are
avoiding large groups," CMC Markets Chief Market Analyst Michael
Hewson, said.
"So this rate cut, while being treated as a positive by the
markets in the short term will obviously raise the question:
What is the Fed afraid of?" he added.
Britain unveiled its "battle plan" to tackle the spread of
coronavirus on Tuesday, warning that as many as a fifth of
employees could be off work at the peak of the outbreak.
Marketing firm 4imprint Group jumped 15% after
saying it had so far seen minimal impact from the health crisis.
Aggreko, the world's largest temporary power
provider, surged 5% and was eyeing its best day in over seven
months as it kept its 2020 targets and said preparations for the
Tokyo Summer Olympics were "progressing well".
(Additional reporting by Shivani Kumaresan, Sagarika
Jaisinghani and Nivedita C in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernard Orr)
