SKF Q3 pretax tops market forecast

STOCKHOLM Oct 20 (Reuters) - Sweden's SKF (SKFb.ST), the world's biggest bearings maker, posted a smaller-than-expected fall in third-quarter pretax profits on Tuesday and said it saw demand improving slightly in the last three months of the year. Pretax profit in the quarter was 689 million Swedish crowns ($99 million) versus earnings of 1.86 billion in the year-ago period and a mean forecast of 538 million seen in a Reuters poll of 20 analysts.