MANILA, Philippines -- Local stocks modestly climbed on Monday to bring back the main-share index back to the 3,300 level but trading volume was lackluster given cautious global investor sentiment.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index gained 20.76 points or 0.63 percent to finish at 3,311.74.

The local index was shored up by marginal gains posted by the holding firms, property, industrial and services counters, which offset the weakness in the finance and mining/oil sub-sectors.

Value turnover was very thin at P1.97 billion, reflecting a cautious sentiment brought about by lingering jitters over Europe's fiscal crisis and the fragile US economic recovery.

There were 55 advancers as against 48 decliners while 59 stocks were unchanged.

Bargain hunting benefited stocks of Aboitiz Power Corp., Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., Energy Development Corp., SM Investments Corp., Globe Telecom Inc., Oriental Peninsula Resources Group Inc., Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc., DMCI Holdings Inc., Universal Robina Corp., Ayala Corp. and Banco de Oro Unibank Inc.

On the other hand, International Container Terminal Services Inc., Filinvest Land Inc. and First Philippine Holdings Corp. traded in the red.

A weak sentiment in Wall Street on Friday tempered domestic risk-taking. The Dow Jones Industrial Index was down by another 46.05 points on Friday although as of the local market's closing at noontime of Monday, the futures market indicated a very slight rebound of 7 points in the next session. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 were also anticipated to eke out small gains after incurring huge losses last week.

"Double-dip fears are the pervading influence on market psychology at present even as European sovereign concerns appear to be easing. Friday?s release of the June US jobs report did little to alleviate such concerns but the headline payrolls number was less negative than the indications provided by other jobs data," said investment bank Credit Agricole CIB.