TOKYO (AP) – Some Asian markets rebounded Monday, recovering warily from a worldwide plunge set off by fears that Americans are failing to keep up with their mortgage payments and the ripple effects that could have on the global banking and financial system.

The Nikkei 225 – the benchmark for the Tokyo Stock Exchange – edged up 0.2 percent to 16,800.05, recouping Friday’s drop as investors bought back into stocks with strong earnings.

Yutaka Miura, manager at Shinko Securities, said Monday’s gains weren’t expected to be very big, and most investors were waiting to see the U.S. markets later in the day.

“This was mainly a technical rebound from Friday,” he said.

South Korea’s benchmark stock index stabilized Monday following a 4.2 percent, or 80.19 point, decline Friday, its third-worst point drop ever. The Korea Composite Stock Price Index rose 20.77 points, or 1.1 percent, to close at 1,849.26.

South Korea said Monday that the impact from the U.S. subprime loan crisis on the country is limited, and vowed to deal with any credit squeeze by adding cash to the financial system if needed.

Last week, the American, European, Australian and Japanese central banks poured funds into money markets as stocks dropped on concerns over U.S. mortgages.

On Monday, the Bank of Japan injected $5 billion into money markets to try to bring more stability to the markets.

Later in the day, the European Central Bank said that it was injecting cash again into the banking system in a bid to soothe rattled credit markets, but said that market conditions are “normalizing.”

The ECB on Thursday provided $130 billion in funds to banks and injected a further $83.6 billion on Friday. Also Friday, the Bank of Japan had injected $8.39 billion.

Taiwan’s main stock index ended up 0.09 percent at 8,938.96 Monday, while Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng index was down 0.03 percent midday at 21785.59.

In Sydney, the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index was up 1.27 percent at 6011.6 after hitting an intraday high of 6040.4.

In Manila, shares fell 0.45 percent lower to close at 3,267.03 after rising early on bargain-hunting.

Stocks in Jakarta and Singapore also were lower.

New Zealand shares closed lower Monday, despite more stable Asian markets and a positive rebound in Australia.

“There was perhaps a suspicion we never really suffered as much as the other markets did last week, so we might just be seeing an element of catch-up in terms of a percentage sell-off,” said First NZ Capital research director Barry Lindsay.

Looking into the rest of the week, brokers expect the local market to take direction from Wall Street.

The Dow Jones industrials closed out a tough week Friday on Wall Street, ending with just a 31-point loss for the day and managing to post a gain for the week. On Thursday, the Dow fell 387 points and extended a series of triple-digit moves that began in late July.

Stock markets in Europe declined Thursday and Friday as well, unappeased by the European Central Bank’s decision to inject another 61 billion euros ($83.9 billion) into the banking system Friday, a day after it provided nearly 95 billion euros ($130.8 billion), the bank’s biggest infusion ever.

At the center of the concerns are high-risk loans to individuals or businesses made by banks globally.

More Americans are failing to keep up with their home mortgage payments, and there are concerns that this could ripple around the globe because much of the debt from mortgages has been packaged into securities sold to pension funds, banks and other investors who were hungry for high returns on investments.

The same mortgage securities in America that are crumbling in value are a part of bigger holdings that banks from Japan to Germany bought into because of low American interest rates and a good returns. That is, until the mortgage holders started defaulting.