SEBI's Fee Overhaul Ignites AMC Shares; HDFC, Canara Robeco Up 8.5%

• AMC shares, including HDFC AMC and Canara Robeco, surged up to 8.5% on December 18 after SEBI revised mutual fund fee structures.
• SEBI reduced brokerage limits: 6 bps for cash market (from 12 bps) and 2 bps for derivatives (from 5 bps), excluding statutory levies.
• The regulator replaced Total Expense Ratio (TER) with Base Expense Ratio (BER), excluding external levies like GST and STT.
• Maximum expense ratios for open-ended equity and debt schemes were lowered, with overall active equity funds now capped between 0.95% and 2.1%.
• Analysts view the changes as largely neutral for large AMCs and slightly positive for mid-sized firms, with minimal impact on wealth managers.

Why It Matters: SEBI's revised mutual fund expense framework led to a significant rally in AMC shares.