HONG KONG, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Asian stock markets were subdued on Tuesday after a disappointing performance on Wall Street, but investors were calmer following continued action by central banks to soothe fears of a global credit crisis.
Central banks around the world injected extra cash into financial systems on Monday for a third trading day, but in far smaller amounts. The European Central Bank said markets were beginning to return to normal.
"The kind of overwhelming sell-off we saw last week is unlikely to take place unless new negative stories about funds in relation to the credit problems come out again," said Kazuhiro Takahashi, general manager of the equity marketing department at Daiwa Securities SMBC.
Stock markets around the world have been hit hard by a constant flow of news about problems in banks and funds exposed to risky investment in U.S. mortgage and asset-backed markets.
Also heartening was data showing U.S. consumers spent more freely than expected last month, boosting retail sales up a stronger-than-expected 0.3 percent.
At 0025 GMT, Tokyo's Nikkei average was little changed as strength in electronics components makers TDK and Kyocera were offset by weakness in chip tester maker Advantest Corp. and Canon Inc.
In South Korea, gains of 2.0 percent for top lender Kookmin Bank, 1.2 percent for flat screen maker LG.Philips LCD and 0.7 percent for Samsung Electronics helped drive the benchmark KOSPI up 0.3 percent.
"The improving U.S. retail sales data is very positive news, and that's going to help improve sentiment," said Kim Hak-kyun, an analyst at Korea Investment and Securities.
"Uncertainty will remain, but markets are going to start clawing their way higher, as some fears from the U.S. subprime sector begin to subside due to the close monitoring of the situation from central banks."
Australia's key S&P/ASX 200 index was flat but investors bought firms with strong profits including Singapore Telecommunications and electrical retailer JB Hi-Fi . Shares in the two companies rose 1.5 percent and 12 percent respectively.
Some miners were also in favour after a rise in industrial metals prices on Monday. Rio Tinto gained 2.8 percent and Fortescue Metals added 2.5 percent.
MSCI's measure of Asia Pacific stocks excluding Japan was little changed, pausing after Monday's 0.8 percent rise.
U.S. stocks ended little changed on Monday after paring early gains as concerns about subprime mortgage exposure kept financial shares pressured. The blue-chip Dow finished flat, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index edged down 0.1 percent.
