The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) had a day in the red on the ASX boards today. At market close, the ASX 200 finished down 0.94% to 7,511 points. But instead of dwelling on that rather depressing figure, let's instead check out the ASX 200 shares that experienced the heaviest trading volumes today:
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The 3 heaviest-trading ASX 200 shares today
South32 Ltd (ASX: S32)
Diversified ASX 200 miner South32 is our first share to look at today. This resources company has seen a significant 14.2 million of its shares trade on the markets today. Despite this number, it's not immediately obvious why we are seeing elevated trading for the company today, given it's released no major news or announcements.
Saying that, the South32 share price had quite a nasty day of trading today. South32 shares finished the day down 1.68% to $2.92 a share. Perhaps it's this sizeable drop that is sparking the higher levels of trading we saw this Tuesday.
Telstra Corporation Ltd (ASX: TLS)
ASX 200 telco Telstra is next up here, with a hefty 20.39 million shares flying around the markets today. As with South32, there is no official major catalysts that might explain the movement. So let's again turn to the Telstra share price and we can see that it might be some volatility that we can blame here.
Telstra shares closed the day at $3.93 apiece, down 0.25%. However, the company moved around a fair bit today, with an intra-day range of $3.91 to $3.96 a share. That might explain the relatively large number of shares that traded this Tuesday.
Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX :PLS)
And of course, our most traded ASX 200 share today is lithium producer Pilbara, as seems to be the norm these days. Pilbara has seen a whopping 22.63 million of its shares change hands this Tuesday. This is most likely a response to Pilbara's nasty 5.58% drop to close at $2.20 a share.
It's not really clear what was behind this share price slump today. However, it is worth noting that this company had been on a stellar run until this week, and is still up an incredible 47% or so over the past month. With gains like that under the belt, it's probably not too much of a shock to see a big pullback from this ASX 200 share on a market down day like today.
