SEBI Redefines Mutual Fund Rules: What Investors Must Know Today

The Indian stock market is likely to witness no significant changes when the trading day opens on Thursday, as the investors are keeping a close watch on the mutual funds, capital markets, and mergers and acquisitions activities.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has made it mandatory for mutual funds to work out a base expense ratio (BER) that will not include the statutory taxes, such as GST, and securities transaction tax levied. This operation is intended to bring about a more explicit communication of the operating expenses besides the total expense ratio (TER), which will still be the sum of BER, non-broking costs, statutory taxes, and regulatory fees.

According to SEBI chairman, Tuhin Kanta Pandey, the BER better mirrors the industry charges as taxes and levies vary constantly. The regulatory body has also reduced the brokerage limits for equity transactions to 0.06% from 0.12% and for derivatives to 0.02% from 0.05%. Moreover, the 0.05% exit load, which was originally introduced in 2018, is no longer applicable. The regulations will come into effect from April 01, 2026.

Paytm Payments: The Reserve Bank of India has given the green light to Paytm Payments Services Ltd. to function as a payment aggregator in the case of both offline and international transactions.

Ola Electric Mobility: The founder, Bhavish Aggarwal, has sold 4.19 crore shares for Rs 142.3 crore at Rs 33.96 per share. He has already reduced his stake by 1.5% in two sessions and has earned ₹234.17 crore. The currently held promoter share is 36.78%.

Cyient Limited: Cyient Semiconductors is buying a majority stake in Kinetic Technologies for up to $93 million. The transaction will bring Cyient into the $40 billion power semiconductor market, which is projected to cover the areas of automotive, data centers, industrial automation, and edge AI.

UGRO Capital: The firm has decided to raise non-convertible debentures through private placement of up to Rs 500 crore after the approval of the Investment and Borrowing Committee.

Titagarh Rail: Signed a contract with Indian Railways for the supply of Rail Borne Maintenance Vehicles, including design, manufacture, testing, and personnel training for the total value of Rs 273.24 crores.

Texmaco Rail & Engineering: Received a Rs 6.70 crore contract from Western Railway for rail electrification in Bhavnagar division.

HCL Technologies: Entered into a partnership with ASN Bank in the Netherlands to boost digital transformation and improve customer service.

Jio Financial Services: Shri Venkata Peri was appointed as Group COO, effective December 22, 2025.

KP Energy: The Botswana Memorandum of Understanding for renewable energy generation, energy storage, and transmission projects has been signed, which aligns with the country's net-zero target by 2030.

Akzo Nobel: A 9% share in AkzoNobel India was sold by the Imperial Chemical Industries for Rs 1,296 crores, resulting in the offloading of 40.97 lakh shares at an average price of Rs 3163.50 each.

NTPC: The group has completed the commissioning of 243.66 MW from Khavda-I Solar PV and 78 MW from Nokh Sokar PV projects. solar capacity of 359.58 MW raised in Gujarat and Rajasthan has taken the group’s total operational capacity to more than 85.5 GW.

TCS: K Krithivasan, the CEO, stated that TCS has reported $1.5 billion as its yearly AI-related revenue. With the execution of over 5,500 AI projects and 209 platform deployments, the company has made 85% of its 20 million clientele utilize its AI services.

One MobiKwik Systems: Navdeep Singh Suri has been appointed the new Chairperson of the Board. Suri, who was India's ambassador to Egypt and UAE and High Commissioner to Australia, has held various diplomatic positions.

Trishakti Muds & Minerals: Signed a deal with XCMG and LiuGong India that includes modernizing and expanding the company’s construction equipment fleet.

Investor Outlook

Market participants are almost certain to monitor the shares of AMC very carefully after the recent changes in regulation made by SEBI. Besides, trading directions are expected to be affected by IPOs, disposals of corporate assets, and technology sector mergers and acquisitions.