Morgan Stanley plans to trim as many as 5% of its stock trading employees early in 2016, part of an annual exercise to cull some of its less critical staff, people familiar with the matter said.

The cuts will affect about 100 people globally and are based solely on performance, the people said. They are not related to the Wall Street firm's recent decision to slash about 25% of its debt traders and salespeople. Morgan Stanley's executives expect to end 2016 with roughly the same number of equities employees the firm will have at the start of the year, the people said.