Evergrande owes $A 418 billion, has run short of cash, and investors are worried a collapse could pose systemic risks to China's financial system and reverberate around the world.

A deadline for paying $83.5 million in bond interest passed without remark from Evergrande and bondholders had not been paid nor heard from the company.

The firm is now in uncharted waters and enters a 30-day grace period. It will default if that passes without payment.

"These are periods of eerie silence as no-one wants to take massive risks at this stage," said Howe Chung Wan, head of Asia fixed income at Principal Global Investors in Singapore.

"There's no precedent to this at the size of Evergrande ... we have to see in the next ten days or so, before China goes into holiday, how this is going to play out."

China's central bank again injected cash into the banking system on Friday, seen as a signal of support for markets. But authorities have been silent on Evergrande's predicament and China's state media has offered no clues on a rescue package.

Evergrande appointed financial advisers and warned of default last week, and world markets fell heavily on Monday amid fears of contagion, though they have since stabilised.

The conundrum for policymakers is how fiercely they can impose financial discipline without fuelling social unrest, since an ugly collapse at Evergrande could crush a property market which accounts for 40 per cent of Chinese household wealth.

Protests by disgruntled suppliers, home buyers and investors last week illustrated discontent that could spiral in the event a default sparks crises at other developers.

Evergrande has promised to prioritise such investors and resolved one coupon payment on a domestic bond this week. But it has said nothing about the offshore interest payment that was due on Thursday or a $A 65 million payment due next week.

Bondholders are starting to think it might be a month or so before things become clearer and markets have already assumed they will take a large haircut.

"Current market pricing estimates that investors in Evergrande's dollar bonds are likely to recover very little," said Jennifer James, a portfolio manager and lead emerging markets analyst at Janus Henderson Investors.

"The likeliest outcome is that the company will engage with creditors to come up with a restructuring agreement," she said, warning that if such a deal is mismanaged "the loss of confidence could have contagion effects".

Global markets have begun to recover after Evergrande's plight sparked a sharp selloff, trading on the basis that the crisis can be contained.

So far there have been few signs of official intervention. The People's Bank of China's 270 billion yuan ($A 57.5 billion) cash injection this week is the largest weekly sum since January and has helped put a floor under stocks.

The Wall Street Journal has cited unnamed officials as saying authorities had asked local governments to prepare for Evergrande's downfall.

Australian Associated Press