CAIRO, Apr 7 (Aswat Masriya) - Egypt's stock market announced on Tuesday it is negotiating with three state-owned petroleum firms with combined capital worth over 8.5 billion Egyptian pounds to list on the market.

The negotiations come amid "efforts exerted to attract more companies to [list] on the Egyptian bourse and encourage state-owned firms to resort to capital market as a platform for funding their expansions," the bourse said in a statement.

The three companies are the Middle East Oil Refinery (MIDOR); whose capital is worth $1.1 billion (8.39 billion Egyptian pounds), Gas Cool; whose capital is worth 125.5 million pounds and Nile Marketing; whose capital is worth 50 million Egyptian pounds. 

Egypt's economy has been badly affected by the political turmoil which gripped the country since a popular uprising toppled former President Hosni Mubarak in January 2011. The turmoil has had its toll on the bourse's benchmark index EGX 30, shaking up investors' confidence in the index.

Mohamed Omran, head of the stock exchange, said in the statement that listing the three companies on the bourse would be "an important addition to Egypt's capital market." He hoped more state-owned countries would depend on the bourse in its future investment and expansion plans.

($1 = 7.6300 Egyptian pounds)