NEW YORK, May 2 (Reuters) - CNA Financial Corp. (CNA.N: Quote, Profile, Research) , the commercial insurance unit of Loews Corp. (LTR.N: Quote, Profile, Research), said on Tuesday its first-quarter earnings rose, helped by increased investment income and lower expenses.

Net income for the Chicago-based insurer increased to $229 million, or 82 cents a share, from $185 million, or 66 cents a share, a year earlier.

"The company showed good results in both their standard and specialty lines, with better profitability than a year ago," said Donald Light, an analyst with Celent LLC.

CNA said net income from continuing operations was $235 million or 84 cents a share.

Analysts had expected the commercial insurer, which is mostly owned by New York City-based conglomerate Loews Corp., to earn 87 cents a share.

CNA said net written premiums in its standard lines sold to small and middle-market businesses decreased $61 million in the first quarter from the year earlier period. Rates, on average, decreased 1 percent during the first quarter.

Net operating income increased $32 million because of a boost in net investment income over last year and a decline in unfavorable prior year developments.

"They have been doing more careful underwriting," said Light.

However, these favorable items were partially offset by increased catastrophe losses. CNA reported $8 million after tax losses, mostly due to tornadoes in the first quarter, compared to only $1 million in the prior year.

CNA's combined ratio, which tells investors whether the company received enough in premiums to cover its expected claims, improved 2.1 points to 67.2 percent for its total property and casualty operations. A figure under 100 signals an underwriting profit.

In March Loews and CNA said they would make their third restatement of results in less than a year to correct errors in reporting cash flow.

In the past year, CNA's stock price rose 18.3 percent, compared with a 25 percent gain in the Standard & Poor's insurance index. CNA shares trade at about 9.2 times earnings, compared with a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.4 for a group of similar insurers.

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