European stocks end lower, Credit Agricole sags

PARIS, May 13 (Reuters) - European equities ended slightly lower on Tuesday, as signs of resilience in U.S. retail sales was not enough to offset inflation fears that hit UK stocks, while banks fell on renewed concerns over asset writedowns.

France's biggest retail bank Credit Agricole (CAGR.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) tumbled 5.7 percent after unveiling a capital increase of 5.9 billion euros following more subprime-related writedowns.

Energy stocks lost ground, surrendering some of their recent hefty gains, with Repsol YPF (REP.MC: Quote, Profile, Research) down 0.7 percent and Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research) down 0.2 percent.

The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares unofficially closed 0.1 percent lower at 1,345.17 points, having fallen earlier by as much as 0.8 percent.

Stocks got a boost when the U.S. Commerce Department released data showing total sales at U.S. retailers weakened modestly in April, but outside the hard-pressed auto sector they showed more resilience than many analysts had anticipated.

"When you strip out auto sales, the figure comes better than expected. The market seems to see in the data some sort of positive signal, but I don't think it's a green light to buy stocks," said Yann Lepape, Chief Global Macro Strategy at Oddo Securities, in Paris.

(Reporting by Blaise Robinson)