Besieged commodity trader gets vote of confidence

Singapore

GLENCORE Plc, the commodity trader whose shares lost almost a third of their value in a day, just got a vote of confidence from Citigroup Inc.

The company doesn't have a stressed balance sheet, has the ability to sell assets to stem the rout and is rated as a "buy", according to the New York-based bank. And if the stock extends losses, management should simply take it private, Citigroup said in a report.

"The markets response is overdone," said Citigroup, which helped Glencore to list in 2011 and has worked on many key deals since. "In the event the equity market continues to express its unwillingness to value the business fairly, the company management should take …