Glencore share price gives up gains
Shares in troubled Glencore closed down 1.6 per cent to 90.12p per share today, after suddenly slipping into the red this afternoon.
This came despite the announcement that board member and former Morgan Stanley boss John Mack has bought 500,000 shares in the company.
The company's shares had risen for the third consecutive day at the open, helping the commodities miner and trader recover losses sustained after a heavy sell-off at the start of this week. Analysts at Barclays had said that a meeting they'd with members of Glencore's management addressed many concerns.
Read more: Glencore share price crashes as analysts warns on metal prices
"It was an encouraging meeting (on Wednesday) as we believe it helped to clear up many misconceptions and confusion we believe is currently in the market around commodity trading," credit analysts from Barclays said in a note on Thursday.
The company's shares rose as much as 8.1 per cent to 98.9p per share this morning, putting them above Friday's closing price of 97.22p per share.
Read more: Glencore insists it is "operationally and financially robust"
On Monday, analysts at Investec had warned its equity value could be "eliminated", sending shares down as much as 30 per cent to 68.62p per share. The warning played into fears that Glencore's debt-heavy balance sheet would struggle to hold up amid a rout in copper prices. The metal, its main sources of income, fell to a six-and-a-half-year-low this week.
Since then, Glencore has assured investors that its business remains "operationally and financially robust". And in a vouch of confidence, chairman Tony Hayward bought an extra 100,000 shares in the company.
Separately, an official purchasing managers' index for China's manufacturing sector inched up in September. The data suggested that the country's economic conditions are deteriorating, helping allay fears of a crash.