Big rises in ecommerce shipments helped UPS to report fourth-quarter results ahead of analysts' expectations.

The express parcel service, which struggled in the fourth quarters of 2013 and 2014, forecast that 2016 earnings per share would be 5 per cent to 9 per cent higher than 2015. Net income for the quarter nearly tripled to $1.33 billion, from $453 million in the fourth quarter of 2014, on revenue up 1 per cent to $16.1 billion.

The strongest performance was in the US domestic packages business, which gained most from rising ecommerce over the peak pre-Christmas delivery season. Daily shipments rose 2.4 per cent year-on-year. – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2016)