Here are the 3 most heavily traded ASX 200 shares on Friday

Shock horror… Pilbara Minerals is NOT on our most traded shares list today

Sebastian Bowen

Author Bio Sebastian Bowen has been a Motley Fool contributor since late 2018. Sebastian found his passion for writing and educating others about shares and all things finance after completing his studies in political, economic and social science and enjoys bringing this passion to life at the Fool. His investment philosophy is a simple one – buying high-quality companies at prices that make sense. When he’s not researching his next investment at all hours of the morning, Sebastian enjoys classic movies and likes to unwind with a good book, newspaper or record. Areas of Expertise Dividend investing ETFs Education Bachelor of Political, Economic, and Social Sciences (Government and International Relations), University of Sydney Social Media X/Twitter Favorite Investment Quote "In the short run, the market is a voting machine, but in the long run, it is a weighing machine." – Benjamin Graham

Published December 23, 2022 3:38 pm AEDT

Well, so much for this year's Santa rally… The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) has decided to give ASX 200 investors the proverbial lump of coal in the stocking this year, with the index recording a red day on the last pre-Christmas trading session.

At the time of writing, the ASX 200 has slumped a rather depressing 0.74%, which has left the index at the index at just over 7,100 points.

At these numbers, the ASX 200 is on track to record a loss of around 6.5% for the year, although we'll have to see what happens in the few trading days scheduled for next week.

But rather than dwelling on all that, let's check out the shares currently topping the ASX 200's share trading volume charts, according to investing.com.

A woman with a loudhailer turns up the volume on her office co-workers — Image source: Getty Images

The 3 most traded ASX 200 shares by volume this Friday

Core Lithium Ltd (ASX: CXO)

First up we have ASX 200 lithium share Core Lithium, with a sizeable 16 million shares bought and sold at this point of the trading day.

It seems that a share price fall is the most likely explanation for this high volume, given that Core Lithium hasn't released any major pre-Christmas announcements today, apart from some director transactions. These could be boosting volumes, but it's more likely that Core's present 2.5% drop to 98 cents per share is driving these trading numbers.

Liontown Resources Ltd (ASX: LTR)

Our next ASX 200 share up this Friday is Liontown Resources. This lithium share has had a hefty 17.22 million shares traded on the markets thus far. There's been no major news out of Liontown today.

So this volume is probably a consequence of the nasty share price dive that Liontown has given investors this session. The company is presently down a nasty 6.15% at $1.22 a share. What a Grinch of a share this one is turning out to be this Friday!

Nickel Industries Ltd (ASX: NIC)

ASX 200 nickel producer Nickel Industries is our third, final and most traded ASX 200 share of the day so far this Friday. A notable 19.87 million Nickel Industries shares have swapped hands as it currently stands.

We did get a notice out of Nickel Industries this morning, notifying investors that Chris Shepherd and Xiang Binghe have both been appointed to the company's board.

But the Nickel Industries share price has not escaped the materials carnage that the ASX 200 is seeing today, with this company's shares down a rather horrid 4.5% to 96 cents a share. This is probably the reason so many shares have been exchanged today.

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