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LTIMindtree's shares slumped 10.5% on Thursday, set for their worst day in four years, after the Indian IT services provider became the first of its peers to miss third-quarter revenue estimates and its forecast did little to calm nerves.

For nearly a year, IT companies have been grappling with clients curtailing, delaying or even cancelling contracts, especially in the United States and conflict-affected Europe. Still, top IT firms Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys posted better-than-feared revenue growth for the October-to-December period and, more importantly, indicated the overall demand situation had not deteriorated further.

However, that was not true in the case of LTIMindtree. "The demand commentary of LTIM has turned out to be more cautious than what we have heard from its peers. There was no talk of 'green shoots' that some of its peers were referring to," Girish Pai, an analyst with Nirmal Bang Institutional Equities, said in a note titled "overpromising and underdelivering".

LTIMindtree said it would not meet its profit margin target for the year, which Pai blamed on the company ignoring the weakening macro conditions at the start of the year.

"It started the year with what seemed like an aggressive double-digit growth guidance and then, post Q2 (second quarter), did away with that but indicated that the second half of the year would be better than the first, only to not deliver."

LTIMidtree's stock sank more than 10% and was the biggest percentage loser among IT stocks and on the benchmark Nifty 50 index.

The stock is also down a little over 10% for the year so far, and is only one of two IT stocks in the red for the year.

At least nine analysts downgraded their recommendation on the stock, with a number of them now agreeing with Pai's "sell" rating. Their median price target indicates the stock will rise a little over 4% in the next twelve months, according to LSEG data.