Third-quarter net profit rose 71 percent to 2.77 billion Swiss francs ($2.16 billion), UBS said on Tuesday, boosted by a leap in trading income and compared to the average forecast in a Reuters poll of 15 analysts of 2.354 billion francs.
"We will remain very optimistic about closing what will be an extremely good year for us," Chief Financial Officer Clive Standish said in a conference call with journalists.
Forecast-beating results have become almost routine at UBS, whose world-wide strategy coupling investment banking and wealth management has allowed it to tap strong markets plus economic expansion in Asia and North America.
Net new money flowing into UBS's wealth management unit, its core business which caters to rich clients, totalled a record 31.1 billion francs, up from 20.2 billion in the second quarter, boosting assets under management to 2.666 trillion francs.
"The key thing to note is the strength of the wealth management operations and the net new money inflows. The world is opening up now to UBS. There's money coming in from the Middle East, from Asia and China," said analyst Simon Maughan at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein.
The news sent UBS shares up 2.3 percent to 112 francs, making it the biggest gainer on the DJ Stoxx European banks index, which was up 0.20 percent.
Net trading income rose a 159 percent in the quarter from the year-ago period to 2.278 billion francs, said the world's largest wealth manager by far.
"We expected a good result after the US brokers and the German brokers had a good result," said analyst Thomas Schudel at Bank Leu. "This exceeds expectations significantly (and) confirms my rating of 'outperform'."
Among rivals, robust markets helped Deutsche Bank to a 50 percent rise in quarterly net profit last week, and US peers Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley also all turned in healthy results.
Net profit in the first nine months of the year stood at 7.542 billion francs, UBS said, well above the 5.938 billion posted in the first nine months of 2004, the year in which the bank posted its best-ever annual result.
UBS shares have risen almost 15 percent so far this year, outpacing an 11 percent rise in the European sector index.
The stock is trading at roughly 12.4 times expected 2005 earnings, according to Reuters data, below a sector average of 13.2, but above the 11.5 forward multiple of Credit Suisse, whose business model is the closest to that of UBS.