Factory output shrank less than expected in September.

HILTON TARRANT: Hello, good evening and welcome to the SAfm Market Update with Moneyweb. Hilton Tarrant in for Alec Hogg on this Tuesday evening.
    A relatively quiet day on the markets compared to yesterday. Hugo Nelson, chief executive of South Africa's sixth-largest fund manager, Coronation, joins us to dissect a fairly decent set of preliminary results - more so in the current volatile environment.
    Trans Hex CEO Llewellyn Delport discusses the dramatic turnaround achieved by the diamond miner.
    Cees Bruggemans weighs in on manufacturing numbers, which seemed good at first glance, but the devil's in the details.
    And guest market watcher Martin Jankelowitz of Ginsberg Asset Consulting is with us.
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In the business news headlines today factory output shrank less than expected in September, suggesting the sector is on the mend, although recovery is expected to be slow. Stats SA says manufacturing output shrank by 11.4% year on year in volume terms in September, compared with the revised 15.2% contraction in August. Analysts had expected around a 13% fall.
    Monale Ratsoma, an economist at Thebe Securities, says this is confirmation that we probably have seen the worst in the current slump. He added that the PMI numbers have been signalling that we are heading towards some improvement.
    Earlier the Business Confidence Index dropped to 82.2 in October, from 85.5 a month earlier.
    Private Hospital group Medi-Clinic posted a 16.6% increase in diluted headline earnings per share. It said it was optimistic about operational prospects for the next six months.
    And micro financier Blue Financial Services said it expected to report a loss in the half-year to August, due to tight funding and high operating costs. The company said restricted levels of funding due to the global financial crisis limited its ability to grow its loan book while operating costs were disproportionally high compared to revenue, due to lower-than-expected levels of funding.
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