Minutes before the market closed, the All Ordinaries index actually looked like it might close on its opening figure, despite being 20 points down in early afternoon trading.
The index eventually closed just 5.7 points (0.13%) up to 4509.6, while the S&P-ASX 200 finished 0.09%% or 4.1 points higher to 4479 points.
"I think we're in a holding pattern, as investors try to work out whether we should be concerned about a [US] double-dip recession or whether this is a buying opportunity, amid a shallow recovery," BBY senior institutional trader Peter Copeland told Dow Jones Newswires.
"Bottom-up focus is currently taking centre stage in Australia, but we have a wary eye on the macro picture. The US economic outlook in particular is still fairly clouded."
Uncertainty remains over the success of BHP Billiton’s $A43 billion bid for PotashCorp with UBS recommending a switch in investment to rival Rio Tinto.
BHP closed 0.3% or 12c down to $38.30, while Rio similarly closed 0.37% or 27c down to $73.18.
Metals were mixed overnight, while spot gold reached $US1230 per ounce, but was last trading at $1229.10/oz.
Avanco Resources shone today after the Brazil-focused junior announced a farm-in deal with mining major Vale over the Trindade North project.
Vale will be able to exclusively explore the project for up to three years and Avanco said the deal may end up being worth as much as $US40 million.
Shares in Avanco jumped 11% or A0.2c to 2.1c.
Meanwhile, CuDeco fell 5% or 13c to $2.32. The company announced the appointment of corporate advisors to help obtain funding for its flagship Rocklands project, for which it released a long-awaited resource update yesterday.
