TOKYO - Major Asian markets recovered from an early swoon Tuesday with investors in Japan leading an afternoon turnaround by snapping up stocks that had been battered in recent weeks.

But smaller bourses in Australia, Malaysia and the Philippines sank amid lingering concerns about U.S. housing and banking woes and their broader impact on the U.S. economy, a key export market for Asia.

In a roller-coaster day, markets across the region tumbled in early trading as investors reacted to a 1.7 percent slide Monday in New York in the Dow Jones industrial average.

But by afternoon trading, even jittery investors in Japan were beginning to feel the market had overcompensated, says Tomochika Kitaoka, equity strategist at Mizuho Securities Co. in Tokyo. Since the start of November, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index had dropped more than 10 percent through Monday to its lowest since July 2006.

“It’s conceivable people will start to rethink their recent selling as an overreaction to the U.S. problem,” Kitaoka said, although he cautioned that more news about U.S. economic woes could trigger another sell-off.

By day’s end, the Nikkei index, which fell as much as 1.9 percent earlier, rose 1.1 percent to finish at 15,211.52 points. Gainers included machinery maker Komatsu Ltd. and mega-bank Mizuho Financial Group Inc.

Tokyo’s recovery heartened investors in Hong Kong, where the Hang Seng index, down as much as 3.8 percent, climbed 1.1 percent to 27,771.21.

In mainland China, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.5 percent to 5,293.70, while Singapore’s benchmark index bounced back 0.8 percent. South Korea’s benchmark index pared early losses, ending down 1.1 percent after having fallen as much as 3.9 percent.

In Europe, major markets were also higher. In morning trading, London’s FTSE 100 Index was up 0.4 percent, France’s CAC-40 rose 0.3 percent and Germany’s DAX was up 0.8 percent.

Asian stock markets have been among the world’s best-performing this year, but trading has been extremely volatile in recent months amid persistent worries over defaults in risky, or subprime, mortgages in the United States, and their wider fallout.

The morning drop followed a sell-off on Monday in New York, where investors were unnerved by Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s downgrade of large banks, and its estimate that Citigroup Inc. would have to write down $15 billion due to its exposure to risky debt.

In Manila, investors dumped shares, sending the Philippine Stock Exchange Index down 2.9 percent. Australia’s benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index closed down 1.7 percent.

“We are continuing to feel the effect of the subprime crisis that started in the middle of this year,” said Jose Vistan, AB Capital Securities research director in Manila. “Most likely it will persist. It’s hard to reverse because of the negative sentiment that’s prevailing.”

But other analysts said recent declines offered a possible buying opportunity.

“It’s not safe to say we’ve already seen the bottom today as uncertainties over the U.S. market are still lingering, but a nice rebound is likely to become visible at the current level,” said Oh Hyun-Suk at Samsung Securities in Seoul.

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Associated Press Writer Teresa Cerojano in Manila contributed to this report.