By Gregor Stuart Hunter

SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Stocks tiptoed forward at the start of Asian trading on Wednesday as the U.S. Congress looked set to end the federal shutdown and traders looked for direction in the absence of clues from government data services.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.1% in early trading as members of the House of Representatives prepared to vote on a measure that could restore funding to government agencies and end a shutdown that started on October 1 and is now the longest in U.S. history.

Australian stocks led gains, advancing 0.2% as lithium miners drove commodity stocks higher, while Japan’s Topix jumped 0.6%. “Sentiment improved after the U.S. Senate passed a bill to end the longest U.S. government shutdown on record,” anal

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