Gold closes lower on Pfizer's vaccine hopes

Gold prices closed lower on Wednesday, despite the US dollar's fall against most major currencies, as precious metals were weighed down by news about Covid-19 vaccines.

The American company Pfizer and the German firm BioNTech announced on Wednesday that the recent data from the final phase of the clinical trials on their Covid-19 vaccine showed it was 95% effective.

This came after Moderna announced on Monday that its coronavirus vaccine was more than 94.5% effective in preventing the disease.

The dollar index fell against a basket of major currencies by 0.1% to 92.3 points as of 20:49 GMT, after hitting a high of 92.5 points and a low of 92.2 points.

Gold December futures fell 0.6% or $11.20, and closed at $1873.9 an ounce, with today's high at $1884.2, and the low at $1860.2.