Highland Gold Mining recovered from a record low as observers dismissed talk that Barrick Gold, its strategic partner in Russia, was about to sell its 34 per cent stake.

Shares soared 23½p to 139p, having dropped by nearly 30 per cent in a week after a Russian news agency reported the Barrick rumour. However, Goldman Sachs analysts noted that the Canadian group had been strengthening its links with Highland over the past few months by merging Russian operations and buying more shares. Repeating “buy” advice, the broker’s team said that an exit by Barrick would be “illogical and poorly timed”, unless something operational had gone seriously wrong.

Traders noted that Highland was scheduled to give a trading update next week. Given the recent share-price slump, the company would not have been able to sit on any negative news, they said.

Alpha Airports jumped 23½p to 93p after Autogrill, its Italian peer, took a 12.5 per cent stake in the travel services chain and said that it was weighing a cash offer for the rest. Autogrill has sought a foothold in Britain after losing out last year in the auction for Compass’s Select Service Partner unit. It was understood to have bought the Alpha stake from Schroders at 95p apiece.

News that Pepsi Mexico was trialling a promotional gizmo licensed from Galleon lifted the children’s media and toy group by 2¼p to 13¾p.

Endace was up 48½p at 385p as Panmure Gordon, the house broker, repeated “buy” advice on the company, which makes equipment used to monitor communications networks. The tightly held stock has jumped 160 per cent since March as Endace’s new management toured the City and on speculation that it could become a bid target for the likes of Cisco Systems, Juniper Networks or IBM.

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