The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) had a rough start to the morning, and it only seems to be getting worse. The ASX 200 was getting close to the breakeven line around lunchtime today.
But the shock decision of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) to resume interest rate hikes has smashed investors' confidence this afternoon. At the time of writing, the ASX 200 has plunged a nasty 1.06% and is back down to around 7,256 points.
But let's not dwell too long on all of that. Instead, it's time for a checkup of the ASX 200 shares that are currently topping the share market's trading volume charts, according to investing.com.
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The 3 most traded ASX 200 shares by volume this Tuesday
Qantas Airways Limited (ASX: QAN)
The first ASX 200 share up for consideration today is the national carrier Qantas. So far this Tuesday, a notable 12 million Qantas shares have flown across the ASX boards. This looks to be a consequence of the big news that Qantas revealed to the markets this morning.
As we covered at the time, the airline has named current chief financial officer Vanessa Hudson as Alan Joyce's nominated successor. Investors don't seem too thrilled though, with Qantas currently suffering a significant 2.74% share price drop, putting the company at $6.555 a share at present.
Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX: WHC)
Next, we have ASX 200 coal share Whitehaven to check out. A hefty 13.58 million Whitehaven shares have been bought and sold on the ASX at this point of the trading day.
Unlike Qantas, there's been no big news out of Whitehaven today that could explain this high volume.
But looking at the Whitehaven share price, we can see that it has indeed had a big move today. The coal miner is currently down 2.37% at $7.215 a share. That's certainly chunky enough to result in some elevated trading volumes.
Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX: PLS)
Third and finally today, we have ASX 200 lithium stock Pilbara Minerals. A sizeable 19.8 million Pilbara shares have been exchanged on the ASX at this point in time. Again, this looks like a byproduct of the company's share price movements, with no news out of Pilbara itself today.
Pilbara has had a very bouncy day indeed. The lithium stock started out strongly this morning, rising as high as $4.23 a share by mid-morning. But investors seem to have gotten a case of cold feet as the afternoon has progressed.
As it currently stands, Pilbara is down by 0.37% at $4.085 a share, but dipped as low as $4.06 earlier this afternoon. All of that bouncing around is probably the smoking gun for the high volumes on display here.
