The shares went into freefall after analysts at Investec issued a note warning that heavily indebted companies such as the Swiss-based mining and trading giant could see nearly all their equity value eliminated under current commodity prices, leaving nothing for shareholders.

British shares fell on Monday, slightly underperforming the broader European market, hit by new fears over miner Glencore’s ability to withstand a metals price slump, and an end to deal talks at Vodafone.

Glencore Plc plunged as much as 27 percent, extending a rout that’s wiped more than $13 billion off its value this month and highlighting investor concerns that it’s not cutting its debt load quick enough.

‘In effect, debt becomes 100% of [enterprise value] and the company is exclusively working to repay debt obligations, ‘ he said. The producer has been forced to sell new stock and scrap its dividend as part of a $10 billion debt- reduction program as China’s economic slowdown sends metal prices lower. It was on course for its worst intraday move on record with shares tumbling 75 percent year-to-date and 85 percent since its flotation in 2011.

Glencore’s stock has been battered as investors retreat from commodities as China’s economy expands at the slowest pace since 1990.

The analysts concluded: ‘We suspect Glencore’s recent restructuring may prove just the start for the majors if current spot prices prevail for much longer, and this serves to support our concern that we are still a distance away from a “value point” in the Mining sector’.

The company has hired Citigroup Inc. and Credit Suisse Group AG to sell a minority stake in its agricultural business, a person familiar with the situation said Friday. Vodafone shares were down 3.8 percent. The Bloomberg Commodity Index last month reached the lowest in 16 years.

However, brewer SABMiller fared better, with shares touching fresh six-month highs, up 2.8 percent, after a report in the Sunday Times that Anheuser-Busch could bid about $106 billion for the company.

Goldman Sachs said that should commodity prices fall another 5 per cent, the metrics needed to maintain the company’s credit rating would be out of the required range.

The weak outlook for China’s economy was a drag on global financial markets again today, with profits earned by Chinese industrial companies declining at the sharpest rate in four years in August, according to official data.