When one thinks of what the most traded share on the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) might be, AMP Ltd (ASX: AMP) is not one that would normally spring to the front of one's mind.
What about the uber-popular ASX growth shares like Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT)? Or the biggest ASX blue chips like Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA), CSL Limited (ASX: CSL) or BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP).
'The AMP' might have been an ASX blue chip heavyweight once. But with its current market capitalisation of just $3.89 billion, it is now dwarfed by companies like CBA ($158 billion). Heck, even Zip Co Ltd (ASX: Z1P) is now bigger than AMP.
And yet, AMP Ltd is today the most traded ASX 200 share on the market.
The AMP share price's 1.07% move higher today certainly doesn't look too extraordinary. However, AMP shares were up more than 4% at one point this morning. ASX data shows that roughly 24.7 million AMP shares have changed hands today at the time of writing. That's way above the next most-traded ASX share in Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX: PLS), which has close to 14 million shares swapping hands.
So why is AMP such a popular trade today?
Massive interest in the AMP share price
Well, to start with, AMP had a shocker yesterday, falling by more than 3%. The catalyst for that drop was its quarterly report for the 3 months ending 31 March. The wealth manager told investors that it had lost $1.5 billion in net cash outflows over the month, which was only just offset by a $1.6 billion rise in total funds under management. But his rise was only due to higher investment markets.
But today, we had some new news out of AMP. Which is undoubtedly fuelling the heavy trading we are seeing today.
As my Fool colleague James covered earlier today, AMP has announced a planned demerger. This demerger will result in the spinoff of AMP Capital's Private Markets business. Private Markets will house some of the business assets of AMP Capital. According to the company's announcement, it will be a " leading global private markets investment manager with a strong performance track record in differentiated asset classes of infrastructure equity, infrastructure debt and real estate, and capabilities to expand into attractive growth adjacencies".
Meanwhile, the 'new slimmed-down AMP' will be a retail-focused wealth manager as well as offering investment and banking services. It will also hold a 20% interest in Private Markets, as well as AMP Capital's Global Equity and Fixed Income business (which might be sold off as well), and AMP Capital's Multi-Asset Group.
Judging by the AMP share price today, as well as the huge number of shares traded, investors are taking a keen interest in what this beleaguered ASX share has pulled out of its hat.
