Asian markets held steady early Wednesday, as investors appear to take in stride Greece's missed loan payment and await a raft of factory data from across the region.

Global markets stabilized even as Greece ended up defaulting on its €1.55 billion loan ($1.73 billion) to the International Monetary Fund, with creditors rejecting a last-ditch effort to buy more time. The euro weakened in early Asia trade, down 0.1% at $1.1130.

"The default itself had been expected from last weekend and therefore should not result in any new shock to the stock market," says Hideyuki Ishiguro, strategist at Okasan Securities. "Investors remain wary of taking on any new risk, however, and that should limit any gains today until Sunday's Greek referendum, on whether or not to accept conditions for another bailout, is done."

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 Stock Average rose 0.2% after the Bank of Japan's quarterly Tankan survey showed improving confidence among big manufacturers in the second quarter.

Elsewhere, investors await manufacturing-sector data from a number of countries, including South Korea and Indonesia, as well as a private-sector and official gauge from China. Exports from the region have been dismal in recent months amid China's slowdown, the U.S.'s patchy demand and Europe's fragile recovery.

"China's official PMI is likely to inch higher, consistent with a near-term stabilization in growth," analysts from Socié té Gé né rale wrote in a research report.

But Chinese markets could come under pressure again following the Shanghai Composite Index's rebound of 5.5% on Tuesday, when a group of China's biggest asset managers said they saw buying opportunities after the recent selloff.

Analysts say margin calls, which spurred massive selloffs recently—helping drive Chinese markets into bear territory, or a fall of 20% from a high—may continue. Margin calls occur when investors are forced to stump up cash borrowed from brokers or forced to sell their holdings because of accumulating losses on investments.

"We don't think that the deleveraging process in the stock market has run its course and the market may stay volatile in coming weeks," analysts from Bank of America Merrill Lynch. "Longer term, the psychological damage from the two-week long sharp market decline may linger for a while. This means that any market rebound will unlikely be strong in our view."

South Korea's KOSPI Composite was flat while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.8%. Hong Kong's market is closed for a holiday.

--Bradford Frischkorn contributed to this article.

Write to Gregor Stuart Hunter at gregor.hunter@wsj.com

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