Germany’s Deutsche Bank AG (DB) Tuesday said net profit increased 49% in the first quarter on record quarterly pretax profits in its corporate and investment banking segment and fewer write-downs overall.

“Deutsche Bank has once again demonstrated its earnings power,” Chief Executive Officer Josef Ackermann said.

Deutsche Bank confirmed its full year outlook for 2011, when it aims to earn a pretax profit of EUR10 billion. It didn’t immediately provide an outlook for the rest of 2010.

Germany’s largest listed bank earned a EUR1.76 billion net profit for the first quarter, compared with EUR1.19 billion in the year-ago period and outperforming analysts’ expectations of EUR1.39 billion for the period.

Other top investment banks such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) have already reported robust first-quarter profits on strong bond trading and other fixed-income business.

Deutsche Bank shares are expected to open sharply higher Tuesday following the earnings announcement, which beat analysts expectations significantly.

“The estimates were already very high after Goldman and the others, particularly in the fixed-income area, but this beats everything,” one trader says.

Shares closed Monday up EUR1.58, or 2.9%, at EUR55.35 on a broader German market rally.

Deutsche Bank shares faced pressure in recent weeks as markets worried about new regulation which could particularly impact its staple investment banking business.

Pretax profits in corporate and investment banking overall were EUR2.7 billion, a quarterly record that compares with EUR1.55 billion in the year-ago period, Deutsche Bank said. Sales and trading revenue were flat from the year before at EUR3.8 billion.