Strong rises in banking stocks led a turnaround in the Australian share market in late afternoon trading.
Local shares had been posting losses during the first half of trade after a dip on Wall Street and commodity markets overnight.
But the All Ordinaries Index ended the day seven points higher at 4,715 and the ASX 200 closed up 12 points to 4,713.
The Commonwealth Bank was the best performer of the big banks, climbing 2.6 per cent to $51.30.
Shares in ANZ rose 30 cents to $23.79 after a trading halt to announce a $1.76 billion deal with its joint venture partner ING.
The ANZ plans to buy out the remaining 51 per cent stake held by ING in their wealth management and life insurance joint ventures in Australia and New Zealand.
The Canadian-owned CanWest Global Communications Corporation has sold its 50.06 per cent stake in the Ten Network.
Macquarie Capital Advisers underwrote and managed the sale to a range of institutional and professional investors at a price of $1.30 per share.
Ten Network shares closed up 5 cents to $1.39.
AWB rose 8 per cent to $1.32 after the Australian wheat and grains exporter raised $220 million in a new share sale to institutional investors.
The big miners fell again today, with Rio Tinto easing 1.5 per cent to $59.98.
Harvey Norman closed up 16 cents to $4.33.
Shortly after the market's close, West Texas crude oil was down at $US65.79 a barrel and a barrel of Tapis crude was also lower at $US66.64.
Spot gold had fallen to just below $US995 an ounce.
The Australian dollar was buying 86.89 US cents, 78.78 yen, 54.34 UK pence and 59.2 euro cents.
