MANILA, Philippines?Local stocks crept up on Tuesday, shrugging off a cautious overseas environment for the second day in a row, as bargain-hunters overpowered profit-takers to push up the index back to the 3,500 level.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index added 22.62 points or 0.65 percent to close at 3,502.25.

Value turnover was heavy at P4.1 billion. Local sentiment was buoyant as there was a lot of liquidity seeking higher returns on expectations of a more prolonged low-interest rate environment. There were 71 advancers that edged out 60 decliners while 43 stocks were unchanged.

The firm trading was supported by the counter for holding firms, which surged by 1.4 percent. Most other counters rose modestly. Only the mining/oil sub-index traded in the red.

Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., the day's most actively traded stock, was among those that benefited from bargain-hunting. PLDT fell sharply on Monday, the ex-date for its cash dividend, which meant that starting that day, investors can sell down the Telco and still receive the dividends.

Other gainers for the day were Energy Development Corp., Union Bank of the Philippines, Megaworld Corp., Alliance Global Group Inc., Lopez Holdings Corp., DMCI Holdings Inc., Banco de Oro Unibank Inc., First Gen Corp., SM Investments Corp., Philippine National Bank, Filinvest Land Inc. and First Philippine Holdings Corp.

On the other hand, it was the turn of Aboitiz Power Corp. and Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. to succumb to profit-taking.

The relatively buoyant local stock market trading may have also been boosted by a prospective slight rebound by the closely watched Dow Jones Industrial Index in the next session, as suggested by a

In the previous session on Monday, however, the Dow was down albeit by a meager 1.14 points or 0.01 percent to 10,302.01.