European stocks close:

European stocks declined as borrowing costs increased at debt auctions in Germany and Italy and as Sweden’s SKF AB reported weakening demand for its products in the second quarter.

Germany sold 4.04 billion euros ($5.08 billion) of 10-year bunds today at an average yield of 1.52 percent, up from a rate of 1.47 percent at the last auction on May 16. Investors bid for 5.81 billion euros of the bunds, above the 5 billion-euro maximum sales target for the auction, the Bundesbank said.

In Italy, borrowing costs surged at the sale of 6.5 billion euros of bills. The Rome-based Treasury sold the one-year securities at 3.972 percent, 1.6 percentage points more than the 2.34 percent at the previous auction on May 11. Investors bid for 1.73 times the amount offered, down from 1.79 times last month.

National benchmark indexes fell in 11 of the 18 markets in western Europe. France’s CAC 40 lost 0.6 percent, the U.K.’s FTSE 100 rose 0.2 percent and Germany’s DAX fell 0.1 percent. Spain’s IBEX 35 rose 1.4 percent as shares of Inditex SA (ITX) surged to a record.

SKF tumbled 7.3 percent to 133.20 kronor in Stockholm, its biggest decline since August, after the company reported “slightly lower” demand for its products and services in the second quarter than in the same period a year earlier.

Renault led a selloff by carmakers, falling 4.2 percent to 30.98 euros as Carlos Ghosn, chief executive officer of Renault and Nissan Motor Co., forecast “three to four more years of stagnation” in Europe’s auto industry, according to a Reuters report.