MANILA, Philippines?Local stocks were a tad higher on Monday as an energy play on Aboitiz stocks alongside a firm Wall Street trading tempered snowballing profit-taking pressure.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index inched up by 3.88 points or 0.13 percent to close at 3,076.79 on the back of gains posted by Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. and Aboitiz Power Corp.

These Aboitiz stocks were the stars of Monday's trading as the looming power crisis was seen as favorable to the group's power generation and distribution businesses.

But value turnover was thin at only P2.28 billion in a session where 42 advancers were overwhelmed by 57 decliners and 67 unchanged stocks.

Property developers SM Development Corp., Manny Villar-affiliated Vista Land & Lifescapes Inc. and Megaworld Corp. as well as construction firm DMCI Holdings Inc., infrastructure holding firm Metro Pacific Investments Corp. and Globe Telecom were also among the gainers amid an increasingly cautious market.

On the other hand, among those that succumbed to profit-taking were Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., ABSCBN Holdings Corp.- Phil. Deposit Receipts, Manila Water Co., Energy Development Corp. and Belle Corp. EDC and Belle had also become flavors of certain days in recent weeks.

By sector, the modest gains posted by the holding firms, industrial and property counters offset the weaknesses in the financials, services and mining/oil sub-indices.

Meanwhile, the steady trading on Monday was also aided by the similarly modest 0.12 percent rise in US Dow Jones industrial index on Friday. For the whole of last week, U.S. stocks rose to push the Standard & Poor?s 500 Index to a 17-month high, as Citigroup Inc. led a rally among banks alongside other confidence-boosting news suggesting that the US economic recovery was sustainable.