The St. Paul Companies, one of the nation's largest commercial insurers, raised premiums an average of 27 percent last year.

And the St. Paul Companies fell 1, to 31 5/8.

He just approved a 65 percent increase in premiums for malpractice insurance sold to doctors by the St. Paul Companies.

The St. Paul Companies now owns 78 percent of Nuveen, a mutual fund and money management company in Chicago.

In 1974, the company was sold to The St. Paul Companies.

Shares of the St. Paul Companies closed at $80.75, up 12.5 cents, on the Big Board.

Jay S. Fishman, the chairman, president and chief executive of the St. Paul Companies, will be honored.

"We should have raised prices sooner," said Mike Miller, the senior executive in charge of malpractice coverage at the St. Paul Companies.

Another claim involving the Western Asbestos Company cost the St. Paul Companies $980 million.

St. Paul Companies, an insurer, invited employees to a play about family violence that was written and presented by teen-agers.