Shares of Glencore halted their slide yesterday after losing around a third of their value on Monday, with several brokers saying worries over the commodities and mining company’s debt pile were overdone.

The stock was up 3.6 per cent at 0713 GMT, at 71.10 pence, but remains down about 27 per cent since Friday over concerns it is not doing enough to cut its debt to withstand a prolonged fall in global metals prices.

Analysts at Citi said Glencore should even consider going private via a management buyout if the market rout continued. That would allow for easier steps towards a deeper restructuring in the face of slumping metals prices and could lead to a subsequent stock-market listing of assets.

“In the event the equity market continues to express its unwillingness to value the business fairly, the company management should take the company private, whereby restructuring measures can be taken easily and quickly,” Citi analysts wrote in a note to clients.

Glencore’s shares have fallen 87 per cent since it listed in 2011, at the last high point of a long commodities boom, and its market capitalisation is now below £10 billion for the first time, with more than £7 billion in market value wiped out over the last week.