European stocks rose on Wednesday after the Bank of England joined other central banks in cutting interest rates, raising hopes for more co-ordinated monetary and fiscal stimulus to counter the economic shock from the coronavirus outbreak.
The surprise move from the BoE which - on the day that Britain's budget is set to open the taps on spending - also announced measures to support bank lending, lifted shares after a lackluster session in Asia.
Wall Street had rallied significantly on Tuesday, helping reverse some of Monday's brutal losses, but that failed to translate into improved sentiment on Wednesday as skepticism grew about the stimulus package announced by Washington to fight the epidemic.
By 0855 GMT, the FTSE 100 had risen 1.73%, the Euro Stoxx was 2.67% ahead and Germany's DAX was 2.65% higher.
U.S. stock futures were down 1.2%, although that was up from the 3% losses before the BoE's 50-basis-point cut in the base rate to 0.25%. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 1.05%.