Windfalls and strong interest income buoyed Deutsche Bank's profit in the third quarter, but a drop in equities trading at the group worried analysts, sending its shares down at the start of trading.
The bank's net profit rose by almost a quarter to €1.24 billion ($1.6 billion), but this was helped by a €125 million insurance payout for damage it sustained in the September 11th attacks and the sale of a €92 million stake in German gas and forklifts company Linde.
Kinner Lakhani, an analyst with ABN AMRO, said the result proved European banks had struggled more in the financial markets than their North American rivals.
"This is worse than expected," he said. "The divisional results are below our numbers. Equity weakening was weaker because of weaker prop (proprietary or in-house) trading."
Others were more upbeat. "They are not a blow-out set of numbers - they are solid," said Societe Generale's Alan Webborn.
Deutsche stock fell 1 per cent at the open in Frankfurt and was down 0.7 per cent at €97.93 by 8.08am, compared with 0.2 per cent rise in the DJ Stoxx index of European banking shares.
Deutsche's result follows a day after a trading hiccup at UBS that spoilt third-quarter earnings at the Swiss rival. It is surprises such as these - UBS was hit by a wrong bet on interest rates - which make investors nervous about trading income, the top driver for Deutsche's earnings.
Although Deutsche Bank's revenue from equities trading fell by almost one third to €700 million, buying and selling debt and other products rose 8 per cent to generate €2 billion in the quarter.
Overall, the group had a profit from buying and selling shares and other securities of €1.53 billion - about 25 per cent lower than a year earlier.
The group's total revenue in the period fell to €6.4 billion from €6.6 billion a year ago, but Chief Executive Josef Ackermann gave an upbeat forecast for the rest of the year.