The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will announce its policy decision on Friday a CNBC-TV18 poll of economists expects the central bank to hold rates steady.

If that happens, it would be for the 11th consecutive time even as several people say RBI may be behind the curve compared to other central banks.

Ahead of the policy outcome, both the stock markets ended lower for the third consecutive session on Thursday. Sensex was down 575.46 points or 0.97 percent at 59,034.95, and the Nifty was down 168.20 points or 0.94 percent at 17,639.50.

Tech stocks were in focus as they declined ahead of earnings due next week. Nifty IT, the sectoral gauge, was down more than a percent. IT shares in Asia as well as the Wall Street echoed a similar drop. TCS, Wipro closed almost 2 percent lower whereas Infosys, M Phasis, Mindtree and Coforge declined in the range of 0.7 to 1.7 percent.

The price of CNG was hiked again by Indraprastha Gas by Rs 2.5/kg. This is the third price hike in April, which means a total hike of Rs 9.1/kg this month alone. CNG in Delhi now costs Rs 69.11 per kg.

Meanwhile, Ashneer Grover, founder and former managing director of BharatPe, hit out at the management of the fintech company over its quarterly results. He tweeted that he heard Bharatpe closed its first quarter of 'degrowth' and 'maximum cash burn' under the leadership of Rajnish Kumar and Suhail Sameer.

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