A senior executive at Chinese personal computer maker Lenovo dismissed market speculation that the company was interested in buying struggling Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia as a "joke".

Shares in Nokia rose as much as 17 per cent in heavy volumes earlier yesterday on market talk that Lenovo may be interested, but gave up the gains after executive Gianfranco Lanci's rebuttal.

"This must be a joke," Mr Lanci, who runs Lenovo's operations in Europe, Middle East and Africa, said. "There's nothing ongoing." Nokia has been trying to reverse its decline in the smartphone market by adopting Microsoft software, but has had little success against rivals Apple and Samsung.

Nokia's shares have dropped more than 70 per cent since 2011 and speculation as to a takeover bid has been rife. - (Reuters)