The Australian market mostly ignored a second day of steep falls on Wall Street.

The ASX200 dipped on opening but by the close had its head just above water at 5,895.70, up 11.90 points or 0.20%.

Yesterday the index dropped 2.7%, amid a bloodbath for equity markets across Asia, sparked by falls in the US.

And Wall Street was hit hard again for a second day in a row, and the sixth consecutive day of declines. The Dow Jones dropped 2.1%, the S&P500 index also took a 2.1% hit and the tech-heavy Nasdaq shrunk 1.3%.

CommSec says the selling was more technical rather than driven by changes in the economic environment or corporate profits.

On the local market, the miners gained ground. BHP was up 1.3% to $33.84, pure-play iron ore miner Fortescue 5.3% to $3.96 and Rio Tinto 1.8% to $78.03.

Nine and Fairafx Media fell after each posted weaker than expected revenue numbers in a trading update. Nine was down 12.3% to $1.84 and Fairfax Media dropped 13.5% to $0.67.

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