LONDON — Stock markets in Asia fell today, following on another big drop on Wall Street as investors tried to quantify the size of a fallout from the global credit crisis. Markets in Europe were mixed as central banks in held firm on interest rates.

Japan’s benchmark index sank 2%, while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong tumbled 3.2%. China’s benchmark Shanghai Composite Index lost 4.9%, its biggest one-day decline in four months. Shares also fell in Australia, India, South Korea, and the Philippines.

Declines in Europe were moderate, with France’s CAC-40 index down 0.6% to 5,649.35. Germany’s DAX Index was up 0.3% to 7,824.48. The U.K.’s FTSE-100 index gained 0.2% to 6,389.00.

Both the European Central Bank and the Bank of England held their benchmark rates steady, as expected, despite some calls to follow the lead of America, which cut rates twice in a six-week span.

American stocks were poised to open mostly higher today, a day after the Dow Jones industrial average tumbled more than 350 points, the third time precipitous drop in a month.

But a trader at CMC Markets in London, Claire Collingwood, said some American economic news expected later today could affect the market direction.

Investors in Asia, as is usual, reacted strongly to the American decline yesterday.

“There has been renewed concern about the U.S. subprime loan problem amid reports that losses at U.S. and European financial institutions are expanding, which increases uncertainty,” a senior economist at Mizuho Research Institute in Tokyo, Koji Takeuchi, said.

Jitters have grown since Citigroup Inc. said Sunday it needed to take an additional $8 billion to $11 billion in writedowns. Markets also are skittish about weakness in the American dollar, soaring oil prices, and a record loss at General Motors Corp.