HONG KONG, April 17 (Reuters) - Morgan Stanley ( MS ) is

cutting around 50 investment banking jobs in the Asia-Pacific

region due to a deals slump, sources with knowledge of the

matter said.

Investment bankers based in Hong Kong and mainland China are

going to be affected the most, they said, declining to be named

as they are not authorised to speak to media.

A Morgan Stanley ( MS ) spokesperson declined to comment.

Bloomberg reported the job cuts first on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Selena Li, Kane Wu and Julie Zhu in Hong Kong,

Scott Murdoch in Sydney; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)