It’s been a fairly dire end to the trading week so far this Friday for the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO). After having a rather volatile week this week, investors have broken into a stampede of pessimism today, sending the ASX 200 Index down by a nasty 2.3% at the time of writing to back under 7,150 points.

Ouch.

But let’s not let all of that ruin our weekends. So instead, it’s time now to check out the ASX 200 shares that are at the top of the share market’s trading volume charts as it currently sits, according to investing.com. 

The 3 most traded ASX 200 shares by volume this Friday

Santos Ltd (ASX: STO)

First share up for discussion today is the ASX 200 energy giant Santos. So far this Friday, a hefty 17.16 million Santos shares have traded owners. There’s been no fresh news out of Santos itself today, save for a share buyback notice.

This could be influencing trading volumes, but the more likely explanation for this high volume is the depressing selloff of Santos shares themselves. At this point, the Santos share price has shed a chunky 2.77% and is down to $7.20 a share.

Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX: PLS)

Next up we have ASX 200 lithium share Pilbara Minerals. At this point of the day, a sizeable 25.16 million Pilbara shares have been bought and sold. There hasn’t been much in the way of news out of Pilbara either. But this company has been ravaged by the markets today.

At present, Pilbara shares have tanked by a horrid 6.3% and are down to $4.01 each. As we covered this afternoon, this appears to have been driven by lower lithium prices across the market. There’s little doubt this nasty share price dive is behind these high volumes.

Sayona Mining Ltd (ASX: SYA)

Our third, final and most traded ASX 200 share this Friday is another lithium stock in Sayona Mining. A whopping 28.55 million Sayona shares have swapped hands as it currently stands on the ASX. This looks to be a very similar situation to that of Pilbara.

There hasn’t been any Sayona news from the company itself. But the shares have been decimated by investors today, likely due to similar concerns to those of Pilbara.

But in Sayona’s case, this lithium share has lost even more, currently nursing an 8% loss, putting the company down to 23 cents per share. With a loss of that size, no wonder we are seeing elevated share volumes.

The post Here are the 3 most heavily traded ASX 200 shares on Friday appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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More reading

• ASX 200 sinks to 2-month low on US market jitters
• Sayona Mining share price dumps 6% amid lithium lows
• Why are ASX 200 lithium shares falling so hard today?
• Why Atlantic Lithium, CBA, Piedmont Lithium, and Pilbara Minerals shares are dropping
• 3 ASX 200 shares trading ex-dividend today

Motley Fool contributor Sebastian Bowen has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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If you’re looking to add some high quality shares to your investment portfolio, then you might want to look at the blue chip ASX 200 shares listed below.

Here’s why experts are tipping these blue chip ASX 200 shares as ones to buy right now:

Goodman Group (ASX: GMG)

The first blue chip ASX 200 share to look at is Goodman. It is an integrated commercial and industrial property company with a world class portfolio of in-demand warehouses, large scale logistics facilities, and business and office parks.

Strong demand for its property led to the company reporting an occupancy rate of 99% during the first half. This has helped underpin solid like-for-like net property income growth again so far in FY 2023.

Goldman Sachs was impressed with its results and remains very positive on the future thanks to strong demand and its significant development pipeline. In response to its results, the broker commented:

GMG continues to demonstrate its strong platform and positioning as evident in today’s result, supported by our expectation of a strong outlook for the Industrial sector more broadly, with a number of favourable fundamentals underpinning future long-term demand for industrial space. We expect solid rental growth as demand for high quality logistics space continues to outpace available supply.

Goldman has a buy rating and $25.40 price target on its shares.

Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX: MQG)

Another ASX 200 blue chip share that could be in the buy zone is this investment bank.

Macquarie has also been performing very strongly in FY 2023 despite the current economic environment. This caught the eye of analysts at Morgans, which were particularly impressed with its recent quarterly update. They said:

MQG is a quality franchise, exposed to structural growth areas, and the company has performed exceptionally well in a more difficult FY23 environment. MQG has also consistently delivered attractive returns over time (~15% average ROE) and with >10% share price upside to our price target (A$214), we maintain our ADD recommendation.

Morgans has an add rating and $214.51 price target on the company’s shares.

Another positive with Macquarie’s shares is that they provide investors with an attractive yield. For example, Morgans is expecting partially franked dividends of $7.41 per share in FY 2023 and $7.13 per share in FY 2024. Based on the current Macquarie share price of $184.16, this will mean yields of 4% and 3.9%, respectively.

The post Experts say these fantastic blue chip ASX 200 shares are buys appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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More reading

• Why are ASX 200 bank shares like CBA being annihilated today?
• Buy these ASX 200 dividend shares for passive income: analysts
• Brokers name 3 ASX shares to buy now
• Boost your portfolio with these blue chip ASX 200 shares in March: experts
• Watch out CBA: This ASX 200 bank share is rapidly growing

Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has positions in and has recommended Macquarie Group. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Goodman Group. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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Well, it’s looking like the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) and ASX shares are set to end the trading week on a bit of a low note. So far today, the ASX 200 has lost a nasty 1.97%. That pulls the Index down significantly from the 7,311 points it closed at yesterday to the 7,167 points it has gotten down to at the time of writing. 

We see these market losses reflected in most of the ASX 200’s most prominent shares. Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) is faring awfully today, having lost a depressing 2.93% at present at $95.82 a share. The other ASX 200 banks aren’t faring much better, with Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) and ANZ Group Holdings Ltd (ASX: ANZ) both down more than 3%.

The ASX 200’s largest constituent, BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) isn’t doing much better. BHP shares have presently lost 2.6% of their value and are down to $45.38 a share. With Telstra Group Ltd (ASX: TLS), CSL Limited (ASX: CSL) and Woodside Energy Group Ltd (ASX: WDS) also nursing losses, it’s hard to find many ASX 200 shares in the green today.

These nasty market losses have built on the jitters we’ve seen for most of the week. Since Tuesday’s session, the ASX 200 has now slipped by a meaningful 2.8% or so. This has pulled the ASX 200 down significantly, with the Index now at a level we haven’t seen for almost exactly two months.

Yes, ASX 200 shares are now at the same level they were at in early January. The market is also down by more than 5% since it reached its 2023 high in early February.

So what’s going on here?

Why are ASX 200 shares at a two-month low?

Well, it’s fairly obvious the contagion of this market panic has started over in the United States. US markets have also had a tumultuous week. Last night, the S&P 500 Index (SP: .INX), which is the flagship index covering the US markets, tumbled by 1.85%.

Since Monday’s trading, the S&P 500 has lost more than 3.2%. So it was always going to be hard for ASX shares to do well with these losses across the Pacific.

It seems this recent weakness in the US markets has stemmed from comments that Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell made to the US Congress this week. As my Fool colleague Bernd covered earlier this week, Powell said the following to the United States Senate Banking Committee:

The latest economic data have come in stronger than expected, which suggests that the ultimate level of interest rates is likely to be higher than previously anticipated. If the totality of the data were to indicate that faster tightening is warranted, we would be prepared to increase the pace of rate hikes.

This is exactly the kind of news investors hate. Higher interest rates mean that more money is going to be pulled out of the US economy (and by extension, the global economy) in order to control American inflation. And that is bad news for share markets.

Higher rates also increase the appeal of cash investments like term deposits and savings accounts, which tends to see money moving out of ‘risky’ assets like shares and into the ‘safety’ of the bank.

So no wonder Powell’s comments spooked US investors, and consequentially, ASX investors.

So it looks like this is why both the ASX and the US have had such a dire end to the trading week. Let’s hope the pessimism doesn’t last the weekend.

The post ASX 200 sinks to 2-month low on US market jitters appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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More reading

• 3 ASX 200 shares trading ex-dividend today
• Novonix shares will soon be booted out of the ASX 200. What might this mean for investors?
• 5 things to watch on the ASX 200 on Friday
• Here are the 3 most heavily traded ASX 200 shares on Thursday
• Is the party well and truly over for ASX 200 coal shares?

Motley Fool contributor Sebastian Bowen has positions in Telstra Group. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has positions in and has recommended CSL. The Motley Fool Australia has positions in and has recommended Telstra Group. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Westpac Banking. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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Flight Centre Travel Group Ltd (ASX: FLT) shares have been very strong performers in 2023.

Since the start of the year, the travel agent giant’s shares have risen over 30%.

Why is the Flight Centre share price smashing the market?

Investors have been scrambling to buy the company’s shares this year after its financial performance improved materially.

For example, for the first half of FY 2023, Flight Centre revealed the more than tripling of its revenue to $1 billion. This was driven by a significant rebound in the travel market and a particularly strong performance from its corporate business.

Also getting investors excited was its operating profit. It posted underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) of $95 million for the six months, which was a huge improvement from a $184 million loss a year earlier.

And while it still recorded a modest underlying profit after tax loss of $2.45 million, this was notably better than its $188 million after tax loss in the prior corresponding period.

However, as great an improvement as it was, it wasn’t going to put the Flight Centre board in a position to pay an interim dividend. So, when might the company start paying a dividend again?

When will the Flight Centre dividend return?

I have good news and bad news. The good news is that analysts believe the Flight Centre dividend will return. The bad news is that you may have to be patient.

According to a recent note out of Goldman Sachs, its analysts are forecasting zero dividends in FY 2023 and FY 2024, before it returns with an 18 cents per share dividend in FY 2025. However, based on the current Flight Centre share price of $19.04, this will mean a rather modest ~1% yield.

Over at Citi, its analysts are a little more upbeat. They expect no dividends in FY 2023, but a 36 cents per share dividend in FY 2024 and then an 81 cents per share dividend in FY 2025. This represents yields of 1.9% and 4.25%, respectively.

Finally, Morgans agrees that no dividends will be paid this year but expects dividends per share of 47 cents in FY 2024 and then 74 cents in FY 2025. This will mean yields of 2.5% and 3.9%, respectively.

All in all, it could be worth being patient with Flight Centre shares if you’re an income investor.

The post When will Flight Centre shares resume paying dividends? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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More reading

• Should I buy Flight Centre shares at $19?
• Here are the 10 most shorted ASX shares this week
• These ASX 200 shares smashed the market in February
• How did the Flight Centre share price manage to leap almost 18% in February?
• Here are the top 10 ASX 200 shares today

Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Flight Centre Travel Group. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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