The general manager and two other executives from Citic Securities, China's largest investment bank, have been arrested as part of an insider trading probe, the latest casualties of the country's ailing stock market.

State-owned Citic Securities, controlled by industrial and financial conglomerate Citic Group, has been on the front line of government efforts to rescue the country's tumbling stock market. The so-called "national team" of state financial institutions directed many trades through the brokerage's flagship trading hall in Beijing.

Police are investigating Chen Boming, Citic’s general manager, Yu Xinli, operations management head, and Wang Jinling, vice director of information technology, on allegations in connection with insider trading and the leak of inside information, the official Xinhua news agency said late on Tuesday.