Business
Trainline shares accelerate on rosier earnings outlook
Trainline has seen shares surge higher after it boosted its earnings outlook despite a hit from the Government’s move to expand “tap-in and tap-out” contactless payment across more UK stations.
The online ticketing platform notched up an 8% rise in UK net consumer ticket sales to £2.1 billion in the six months to the end of August, thanks to a bounce back in demand for leisure travel and commuting, and as year-earlier trading was impacted by strike action.
But it said it took a hit from the first phase of the Department for Transport’s rollout of the contactless payment network to more stations, allowing passengers to tap-in and tap-out with bank cards and pay the guaranteed best fare available at that time of day.
Consumer revenues were flat at £107 million, it added.
In spite of this, London-listed Trainline – which also has operations across Europe – said it now expects full-year underlying earnings at the top end of its previous guidance, for between growth of 6% and 9%.
Shares in the FTSE 250 firm soared as much as 13% on Thursday morning trading, as it also cheered investors with plans to bolster returns with up to another £150 million in share buybacks.
Jody Ford, chief executive of Trainline, said: “Trainline has delivered a robust performance in the first half and today announces improved guidance for the full-year alongside an enhanced £150 million share buyback programme.”
He added: “Rail liberalisation in Europe continues to demonstrate the value Trainline brings as the pre-eminent domestic aggregator, most recently in south-east France where increased carrier competition between Paris, Lyon and Marseille has driven second quarter sales growth of 34%.”
In the update ahead of interim results in November, Trainline said overall group revenues lifted 2% to £235 million in the first half, as net ticket sales rose 8%.
The firm said it was keeping guidance unchanged for full-year group-wide growth of 0% to 3% for revenues and 6% to 9% for net ticket sales.
Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: “The shares had been weak this year amid concerns about new competitive threats in the UK, but the trading update is a reminder that Trainline is a bigger beast.
“France is acting like a rocket for the company’s sales growth and that is helping to offset pockets of weakness elsewhere.
“The overall tone is upbeat and that’s exactly what the market needed to hear to get the share price moving higher again.”
A UPS worker pushes a cart in New York, US, on Monday, Oct. 27, 2025.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
United Parcel Service on Tuesday reported earnings that topped Wall Street’s estimates ahead of its busy holiday season.
Shares of the package delivery giant surged 10% in premarket trading.
Here’s how the company performed in its third quarter, compared with what Wall Street was expecting based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:
- Earnings per share: $1.74 adjusted vs. $1.30 expected
- Revenue: $21.4 billion vs. $20.83 billion expected
For the period ended Sept. 30, the company reported net income of $1.31 billion, or $1.55 per share, compared with $1.99 billion, or $1.80 per share, the year prior. Adjusting for one-time items, including costs of its transformation strategy, the company reported profit of $1.48 billion or $1.74 per share.
UPS estimates its fourth quarter revenue to be $24 billion with an operating margin of 11% to 11.5%.
The company also on Tuesday laid out details of its previously announced turnaround plan and said it cut its workforce by 34,000 jobs, greater than its previous estimate of 20,000, as part of its plan to trim down its work with Amazon, previously its largest customer.
UPS also initiated a sale-leaseback transaction in the third quarter for five properties as part of its broader strategy, which resulted in a $330 million pre-tax gain on sale in its supply chain solutions division. It said Tuesday that it has now closed daily operations at 93 leased and owned buildings through September as part of the initiative.
UPS said its turnaround plan has resulted in $2.2 billion in savings through the end of the third quarter, with an estimate of achieving $3.5 billion total year-over-year cost savings in 2025.
“We are executing the most significant strategic shift in our company’s history, and the changes we are implementing are designed to deliver long-term value for all stakeholders,” CEO Carol Tomé said. “With the holiday shipping season nearly upon us, we are positioned to run the most efficient peak in our history while providing industry-leading service to our customers for the eighth consecutive year.”
The courier’s strong results come as the parcel industry faces a volatile tariff environment and sluggish demand, in addition to impacts from the end of the de minimis loophole. Rival FedEx said last month that it incurred $150 million in headwinds from the global trade environment.
Alex Chriss, CEO of PayPal Inc.
Courtesy: PayPal
PayPal has signed a deal with OpenAI to have its digital wallet embedded into ChatGPT so users can pay for items found through the leading consumer AI tool, the company told CNBC exclusively.
The agreement, sealed over the weekend, means that starting next year, both sides of PayPal’s ecosystem can plug into ChatGPT: PayPal users can purchase items through the AI platform, and its merchants can sell on it, with their inventory listed there, according to PayPal CEO Alex Chriss.
“We’ve got hundreds of millions of loyal PayPal wallet holders who now will be able to click the ‘Buy with PayPal button’ on ChatGPT and have a safe and secure checkout experience,” Chriss said in an interview.
The move makes PayPal an early part of OpenAI’s efforts to broaden ChatGPT’s use for e-commerce. The thinking is that its 700 million-plus weekly users can lean on artificial intelligence to help them find items, similar to a human personal shopper. Last month, OpenAI said its users could buy from Shopify and Etsy merchants, and two weeks ago it announced an e-commerce deal with Walmart.
“It’s a whole new paradigm for shopping,” Chriss said. “It’s hard to imagine that agentic commerce isn’t going to be a big part of the future.”
PayPal is attempting to position itself as a payments backbone for the coming era of agentic AI shopping, announcing recent deals with Google and artificial intelligence firm Perplexity. The fintech firm issued a release on its OpenAI deal Tuesday.
The company will also manage merchant routing, payment validation and other behind-the-scenes aspects of payment processing for PayPal sellers on ChatGPT, so individual merchants don’t have to sign up with OpenAI, the firm said.
Chriss touted the fact that both consumers and merchants have been verified by the fintech firm, reducing the risk of fraud for either group. Users can pull funds from linked bank accounts or credit cards, or stored balances, to pay for purchases, and they’ll get protections, package tracking and dispute resolution.
“It’s not just that a transaction can happen,” Chriss said. “It’s that this is a trusted set of merchants, the largest merchant network in the world from PayPal, that are verified, with the largest set of verified consumers in a consumer wallet.”
PayPal also said it is expanding the use of OpenAI’s enterprise AI products for its employees to speed up product cycles.
Gold prices in Pakistan witnessed their sharpest single-day plunge in years on Tuesday, October 28, 2025, tracking a major slump in the international market amid renewed optimism over a potential U.S.-China trade breakthrough, according to data from the All-Pakistan Gems and Jewellers Sarafa Association (APGJSA).
The price of 24-karat gold per tola dropped by Rs14,000, settling at Rs416,362 compared to Rs430,362 a day earlier.
Likewise, the price of 10 grams of 24-karat gold fell by Rs12,003, closing at Rs356,963, while 22-karat gold was traded at Rs327,227, down Rs11,004 from the previous session.
In the global market, gold slumped by $140 per ounce, sliding to $3,940 from $4,080, marking one of the steepest daily declines in recent memory.
Silver prices
Following the downward trend in gold, silver prices also slipped. The rate of silver per tola declined by Rs173, settling at Rs4,924 against Rs5,097 on previous day, while 10-gram silver fell to Rs4,221 from Rs4,369 with a reduction of Rs148.
The price of international silver stood at $46.62, marking a decrease of $1.73 from the previous day’s level of $48.35, the association reported.
According to Reuters and AFP, Gold prices extended losses on Tuesday to a near three-week low, as optimism over a potential U.S.-China trade deal dented demand for safe-haven bullion, while investors looked forward to major central bank policy announcements this week.
Wall Street stocks ended at fresh records again on Monday over optimism that the US-China trade war was about to ease, with a possible deal in view when presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping meet later this week.
Major indices in New York charged higher, with the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq all finishing at records on the improved sentiment on trade talks.
Monday’s buoyant session also featured heady gains by Microsoft, Facebook parent Meta and other tech giants ahead of earnings later this week.
Argentina’s stocks soared more than 20 percent on the back of President Javier Milei’s midterm victory, which saw his party win the biggest amount of votes in weekend legislative elections. The peso also jumped.
European stock markets were muted, reined in by anticipation of interest-rate decisions this week from the Federal Reserve and European Central Bank, although Spain’s index reached a record high from strong growth and corporate earnings.
Gold Rates Today in Pakistan
The rise of digital finance tools such as gold-backed Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs), mobile investment platforms, and fintech innovations has expanded access to global gold markets.
These developments have enabled retail investors, particularly in regions like the Gulf, to participate in what was once a domain dominated by institutional investors.
The recent surge in gold prices is a reflection of sustained global demand and increased investor caution in the face of ongoing economic and geopolitical challenges.
Investment Trends in Pakistan
In Pakistan, where the rupee remains under pressure and economic uncertainty persists, gold retains its status as a favored asset for both consumers and investors.
Beyond being a commodity, gold is widely regarded as a reliable means of wealth preservation.
As market volatility increases, tangible assets like gold are viewed as secure investments, reinforcing their importance in both traditional and modern financial strategies.
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