The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is having a decent day on the markets today. At the time of writing, the ASX 200 looks set to end this Wednesday in the green (touch wood), and is currently up 0.76% to 7,317 points. But let's have a look at the trees, rather than the forest, and check out which ASX 200 shares are trading with the heaviest volume today:
3 of the most traded ASX 200 shares today
Sydney Airport Holdings Pty Ltd (ASX: SYD)
Sydney Airport is our first ASX 200 share to look at today. A hefty 18.33 million Sydney Airport shares have traded hands so far today. This company has been at the centre of attention on the share market this week, following the blockbuster proposed takeover deal announced on Monday. This saw the Sydney Airport share price shoot up by roughly 35%. Today, however, Sydney Airport shares are currently down 1.82% to $7.57. It's likely a combination of these factors that are leading to such high trading volume.
Boral Limited (ASX: BLD)
Boral is another ASX 200 share that is being very heavily traded today. Currently, a substantial 36.79 million Boral shares have swapped hands so far this Wednesday. Boral is another ASX share that has had a rather sensational week. Having spent a fair amount of time rebuffing takeover advances from Seven Group Holdings Ltd (ASX: SVW) recently, we got the news this morning that Seven had bought enough Boral shares to raise its stake in the company to 34.5%. Seven had promised a higher takeover offer if it reached this level. As such, it's perhaps no surprise the Boral share price is moving higher today. It's currently up 0.27% to $7.40 a share. This in turn might be prompting such a large number of Boral hands to trade today.
Challenger Ltd (ASX: CGF)
Out final share, and the most traded ASX 200 company on the markets today, is Challenger. This annuities provider has seen a whopping 85.7 million shares trade hands so far today, substantially more than any other ASX 200 share. Again, we don't have to look too far to understand why this is happening. The Challenger share price is currently up a hefty 8.87% today to $5.96 a share after rising as high as $6.22 this morning (up 14%).
Why? Challenger this morning announced that a "strategic partner" in Apollo Global Management has agreed to acquire a 15% stake in Challenger from Caledonia Investments. This is clearly a vote of confidence in Challenger, and is probably the main catalyst behind the large volume of trades we are seeing today.
