The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is having a rather strange day of trading this Wednesday. At the time of writing, the ASX 200 is sitting at 7,444.1 points, up 0.01% for the day. However, it has been both up and down today — and by quite large margins too.
So rather than dwelling on this erratic volatility, let's instead check out the ASX 200 shares that are topping the trading volume charts so far today, according to investing.com.
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3 most active ASX 200 shares by volume this Wednesday
South32 Ltd (ASX: S32)
Diversified ASX 200 miner South32 is our first share up today. We have seen a hefty 12.3 million South32 shares trade owners on the share market so far. There's not much in the way of news or announcements that might explain this elevated trading volume.
However, the South32 share price has been bouncing around today. It's currently up 0.13% at the time of writing to $3.725 a share after going as low as $3.66 this morning. It might be this volatility that's causing so many South32 shares to trade today, perhaps combined with this company's ongoing share buyback program.
A2 Milk Company Ltd (ASX: A2M)
Our second share to examine today is the embattled ASX 200 dairy company A2 Milk. A2 has seen a whopping 20.32 million of its shares swap hands so far this Wednesday. This is almost certainly due to the nasty share price tumble this company is presently experiencing.
Currently, A2 shares are down a depressing 12.26% to $6.01 a share. This drop was triggered by an investor update the company released this morning which announced a new deal with the US chocolate company Hershey's, as well as some guidance. Investors have evidently been disappointed by what A2 had to say.
Telstra Corporation Ltd (ASX: TLS)
Our final, and most traded share so far today, is the ASX 200 telco Telstra. Telstra has seen a sizeable 22.02 million of its shares bought and sold on the markets today thus far.
But, in contrast to A2, this seems to be due to a healthy share price appreciation. Telstra is up by a robust 2.89% so far today to $3.91 a share. This appears to be driven by continuing positive sentiment over the company's plans to buy the Pacific-based telco Digicel, as my Fool colleague James covered earlier today.
